What It Means
Technical analysis means studying a stock's past price and volume patterns on a chart to forecast likely future moves, rather than looking at the company's financial statements or business fundamentals.
How It Works
A technical analyst works from the premise that price already reflects all known information, and that price patterns tend to repeat because human behavior — fear, greed, herding — repeats. Common tools include trendlines, moving averages, support and resistance zones, and momentum indicators like RSI, all applied to a price chart with no reference to what the underlying company actually does or earns. It's the counterpart to fundamental analysis rather than a replacement for it — many traders use fundamentals to decide what to trade and technicals to decide when.