In finance, technical analysis is an analysis methodology for analysing and forecasting the direction of prices through the study of past market data, primarily price and volume. As a type of active management, it stands in contradiction to much of modern portfolio theory. The efficacy of technical analysis is disputed by the efficient-market hypothesis, which states that stock market prices are essentially unpredictable, and research on whether technical analysis offers any benefit has produced mixed results. It is distinguished from fundamental analysis, which considers a company's financial statements, health, and the overall state of the market and economy.
Stock chart showing levels of support (4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) and resistance (1, 2, and 3). Therefore, of resistance tend to become levels of support and vice versa.[citation needed]
Temporal representation of hindcasting
José or Joseph Penso de la Vega, best known as Joseph de la Vega, was a Sephardic Jewish merchant in diamonds, financial expert, moral philosopher and poet, residing in Amsterdam. He became famous for his masterpiece Confusion of Confusions. Vega's work is the first study written about the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and its participants, the shareholders. In a stilted style he describes the whole gamut, running from options, futures contracts, margin buying, to bull and bear conspiracies, even some form of stock-index trading. The publication of Confusión de Confusiones helped lay the foundations for modern fields of technical analysis and behavioral finance.
Idealized portrait, artist unknown
View of the two synagogues of Amsterdam from the East by Gerrit Berckheyde.
Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam) by Peter Schenk the Elder It is the area where De la Vega grew up.
Courtyard of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange by Emanuel de Witte (1653)