The Technical Analysis/Moving Averages/Blueprints Starter. (5min) A sneak peak at how to do TA on any asset and how to incorporate Moving Averages into your trading blueprints. SMA (Simple Moving Average) — It just takes the closing prices over the last X periods (say 20 days), adds them up, and divides by X. Every single day in that window gets exactly the same weight . Super straightforward, smooth line, but it lags a bit because old prices from 20 days ago have as much say as yesterday's price. EMA (Exponential Moving Average) — this one's the "smarter" cousin. It still looks back the same number of periods, but it gives way more importance to the most recent prices and exponentially less to the older ones. So when the price suddenly starts moving fast, the EMA reacts quicker and turns sooner than the SMA. In plain English: SMA = "fair & balanced, but a little slow to catch up" EMA = "pays attention to what's happening right now , so ...