Indicators & Analysis
Beginner
Simple Moving Average (SMA)
Also called: simple MA
The plain arithmetic average of the last N closing prices — equal weight to every period.
Definition
The SMA is the default ‘MA’ if no type is specified. It smooths price by treating every period in the window equally — which makes it more stable than the EMA but also slower to react.
Used heavily for trend identification on longer timeframes (50-day, 200-day) and for level support/resistance in low-volatility markets.
Formula
SMA(n) = Σ(closes over last n periods) / n