Retracement
What is retracement?
A term that describes a brief reversal in the direction of a company's share price.
For example, a company's stock might rise by 10% during a given day. But despite this overall upward trend, the price may dip slightly at certain points of the day. These short-term reversals are known as retracements.
Where have you heard about retracement?
The term often crops up when market analysts are predicting the future direction of a particular stock. When the movement of a stock changes, they must consider whether it's just a brief retracement in a wider trend, or a major adjustment that reflects the start of a new trend.
What you need to know about retracement...
If you look at a chart of a stock's price direction over a given day, it's unlikely that it'll show a continuous movement upwards or downwards. Even if the stock has jumped in value, it's likely to have edged backwards at certain times.
These small reversals in a stock's price are viewed as short-term pauses for breath before it continues on its original trend. As a result, a retracement doesn't mark the end of the larger trend.
Retracements can refer to either upward or downward movements.
