Technical Indicators Introduction

Stocks can be analyzed by means of either fundamental analysis or technical analysis.

Those who analyze securities using fundamental analysis rely on data such as the profits-to-earnings ratio, yield, and dividend whereas those who analyze securities using technical analysis look for technical patterns on stock charts by using calculations referred to as “technical indicators”.

Technical analysis is a form of market analysis that studies the demand and
supply for securities based on volume and price studies. Technicians attempt to identify price trends in a market using one or more technical indicators.

There are many different types of technical indicators and most are built into the Vanguard AI’s programming language, VAI Script, as primitive functions, as outlined in our knowledge base.

This section provides a list of the built-in technical analysis functions that are supported by the VAI Script programming language but you can also create your own indicators and trading systems through our VAI Script Editor.

Please note that many technical indicator names are quite long, therefore function abbreviations have been conveniently provided wherever possible such as:

Long name:
SimpleMovingAverage(CLOSE, 30)
Abbreviated name:
SMA(CLOSE, 30)

SMA is the same function as SimpleMovingAverage and both methods work the same way. Each function provides an abbreviated name if available.