The Overall Performance Indicator (OPI) is a summary of the charting indicators and is a useful guide in reading the chart. It is based on a 2 out of 3 system. If 2 or more of the indicators are bullish, then the bar is green today. If 2 or more indicators are bearish, then the bar is red today. Learning to understand the indicators will become more important than the OPI bar as you advance your knowledge. An in-depth familiarisation on how the indicators work will often give you an earlier exit than the OPI bar. In the beginning though, the OPI bar will be sufficient as a starting point.

30 Day Moving Average - The 30 day moving average is calculated by adding up the last 30 days closing price, then divided by 30. It is a moving average, because tomorrow you would then remove day 1 from the above calculation and add in day 31. It is a moving window of what the average price is. If the closing price for the share is above the 30 day moving average, then this is a positive signal and you will see a green Above signal in the Market Scan page. If the closing price is below the moving average, then this is a negative signal and you will see a red Below signal in the Market Scan page.

You can see on the chart above the price closing above the 30 and 50 DMA around the 16 November.

MACD - A full description of the MACD can be found in the Charting Indicator Basics. To summarise this though, the MACD is a moving average system that is useful to identify the sentiment of the stock. When the MACD bar is above the centre line, the stock is in bullish. When the MACD is below the centre line, the stock is bearish.

The increase in volume and price around 16thNov pushes the MACD into Bullish.

Stochastic - The final charting indicator is the Stochastic. As with the MACD and moving average, a complete description of this indicator is covered in the Charting Indicator Basics section. In summary, a Stochastic is a reflection of what the price is relative to what it has been in the last week. If the Stochastic line is at the top of the graph, then the share price is making new highs and the price is more expensive than it has been recently. If the Stochastic is at the bottom of the graph, then it is making new lows and is the cheapest that it has been recently.

To summarise the Stochastic, refer to the following guidelines -
When the Stochastic line crosses up through the 30% line, it is bullish.
When the Stochastic line then continues up through the 70% line and crosses back down through it, it is bearish.
If the Stochastic line crosses up through the 30% line (becoming bullish) and then turns and goes back down through the30% line, it is bearish.
If the Stochastic line crosses down through the 70% line (becoming bearish) and the turns and goes back up through the 70% line, it is bullish.

Applying these guidelines to the above chart, you can see that around the 16th November the price began the most recent rally. The Stochastic was already bullish and this price movement pushed the Stochastic to near the top of the chart, giving a very positive signal.

Referring to the Market Scan page for the above chart you can see that all three charting indicators are bullish. This gives a bullish green OPI bar.