Moving Averages Introduction

Moving averages are the most basic form of technical analysis. These functions calculate averages or variations of averages of the underlying vector or variable.

Many technical indicators rely upon the smoothing features of moving averages as part of their calculation. For example, the Moving Average Convergence / Divergence (MACD) indicator in Vanguard AI and VAI Script allows you to specify the moving average type used within the indicator’s “Signal Line” calculation.

This section covers the Simple moving average, which is simply an average price over time, the exponential moving average, which is more complex and places extra weight on prior values, plus several other types of moving averages like weighted averages, triangular averages, time series calculations, and so forth.

Each moving average in this section has an associated constant identifier that can be used as a function argument to specify the type of moving average to use by any given technical indicator that requires a moving average type.