There are two primary methods for analyzing investment opportunities in the U.S.
The first is fundamental analysis, which is typically for longer term investments and takes into account the most basic aspects of a company's financial strength at that moment.
This approach focuses on things like the company's growth rate, growth potential, income, revenue, and even things like management structure.
Then there is technical analysis, which is typically for shorter term investments. This form of analysis focuses on patterns within stock charts to forecast future pricing and volume trends.
Some of the metrics that technical analysts tend to use include price, market capitalization, momentum, and moving averages.
It's also important to note that some investors use bits of both methods.
But how do you actually perform these types of analysis? As a Schwab client, you can log in to your account to access a wide range of helpful tools, particularly screeners.
We'll start with fundamental analysis, screening by criteria that reflect past growth and strong predictions for future growth, such as Revenue and Earnings Per Share.
Then we can narrow it down further with ratings screeners. Here we'll look at Schwab Equity Ratings, an A through F letter grade that reflects Schwab's six-month outlook on stocks.
As you can see, we've already quickly narrowed the world of possibilities down to a few to dive further into.
Now we'll progress to technical analysis, where we'll look at the price chart for one of our candidates.
Here we'll apply chart overlays to start scanning for patterns in price movement.
Using things like support and resistance, trend lines, and moving averages, you can start to look for breakouts and pullbacks that may represent good times to make a trade.
To continue learning about technical analysis, visit the Investor Education tab of the Schwab International site.