Bar Charts
This chart consists, as the name tells us, of bars. Bar charts contain more information than simple line charts. They are used to display more than one price information. A simple example would be two price information per time unit. For example an open-close or high-low combination. Bar charts can contain up to four price information.
This example shows an high low close chart.
The bar itself displays the range from high to low, i.e. the highest price of the day is connected with the lowest price of the day. The little tag on the right side of the bar marks the closing price of the days trading session. If the opening price was also available, it would be linked to the left side of the bar.
Note: There can be days when the market opens at the highest or lowest price of the day. In such a case the closing price tag is attached to the top or the low of the bar. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction
Historically, people have always been looking for ways to anticipate price movements of securities to ensure safe profits.
The second large approach besides fundamental analysis is the wide field of technical analysis. It is easy to learn, requires information that is widely available, and is mostly short term oriented. Therefore it has gained a lot of popularity in recent years.
The most important thing to say about technical analysis is that it deals more with the markets than product itself. A technical analyst does not need any information about a company

Case Study
Sample of Data Published in the Financial Times
Example of an analysis of Abbey National using the available indicators.
Gross Dividend
The basic rate of tax in the UK is 25%. The net dividend (Div Net)
has to have tax added back in order to arrive at the gross dividend.
Gross Dividend =

The most popular distinction between the fundamental and the technical approaches to the market has to do with the factors considered. The basic concept fundamental analysts are concerned with is the change of supply and demand and its implication on the price. It is an appealing concept that prices of goods must represent the equilibrium of supply and demand. Isolating, quantifying and evaluating the importance and influence of contributing factors is the primary task of the fundamentalist.
The Basics of Fundamental Analysis
The technique of fundamental analysis is to assess whether the market value of the share is overvalued or undervalued in comparison to its calculated true worth. To calculate a share

Securities analysts attempt to predict the future prices of marketable securities to realize profits.
Many different approaches have been made to pursue that aim. Financial analysts can best be divided into two groups: Fundamental and technical analysts. Both groups consider their approach to be superior to the other. The main argument of technicians is that fundamental analysis lags behind and does not take the psychological state of the markets into consideration. Fundamentalists say, technical analysis is not based on a scientific framework and is to large extent subjective.
Both approaches will be shown in the following chapter.

Example:
If the total assets of the fund mentioned in the last example decreases according to a change in the portfolio securities from DEM 2,000,000 to DEM 1,500,000 the net asset value per share decreases from DEM 2,000 to DEM 1,000 per share.
Changes in the Number of Shares:
There is no change in the net asset value per share if there is a sale or redemption of the fund

Marketing of mutual funds