The 52-week range is a data point traditionally reported by printed financial news media, but more modernly included in data feeds from financial information sources online. The data point includes the lowest and highest price at which a stock has traded during the previous 52 weeks.
Investors use this information as a proxy for how much fluctuation and risk they may have to endure over the course of a year should they choose to invest in a given stock. Investors can find a stock's 52-week range in a stock's quote summary provided by a broker or financial information website. The visual representation of this data can be observed on a price chart that displays one year's worth of price data.
Key Takeaways
The 52-week range is designated by the highest and lowest published price of a security over the previous year.
Analysts use this range to understand volatility.
Technical analysts use this range data, combined with trend observations, to get an idea of trading opportunities.
Understanding the 52-Week Range
The 52-week range can be a single data point of two numbers: the highest and lowest price for the previous year. But there is much more to the story than these two numbers alone. Visualizing the data in a chart to show the price action for the entire year can provide a much better context for how these numbers are generated.
Since price movement is not always balanced and rarely symmetrical, it is important for an investor to know which number was more recent, the high or the low. Usually an investor will assume the number closest to the current price is the most recent one, but this is not always the case, and not knowing the correct information can make for costly investment decisions.
Two examples of the 52-week range in the following chart show how useful it might be to compare the high and low prices with the larger picture of the price data over the past year.
These examples show virtually the same high and low data points for a 52-week range (set 1 marked in blue lines) and a trend that seems to indicate a short-term downward move ahead.
The overlapping range on the same stock (set 2 marked in red lines) now seems to imply that an upward move may be following at least in the short term. Both of these trends can be seen to play out as expected (though such outcomes are never certain). Technical analysts compare a stock's current trading price and its recent trend to its 52-week range to get a broad sense of how the stock is performing relative to the past 12 months. They also look to see how much the stock's price has fluctuated, and whether such fluctuation is likely to continue or even increase.
The information from the high and low data points may indicate the potential future range of the stock and how volatile its price is, but only the trend and relative strength studies can help a trader or analyst understand the context of those two data points. Most financial websites that quote a stock’s share price also quote its 52-week range. Sites like Yahoo Finance, Finviz.com and StockCharts.com allow investors to scan for stocks trading at their 12-month high or low.
Current Price Relative to 52-Week Range
To calculate where a stock is currently trading at in relations to its 52-week high and low, consider the following example:
Suppose over the last year that a stock has traded as high as $100, as low as $50 and is currently trading at $70. This means the stock is trading 30% below its 52-week high (1-(70/100) = 0.30 or 30%) and 40% above its 52-week low ((70/50) – 1 = 0.40 or 40%). These calculations take the difference between the current price and the high or low price over the past 12 months and then convert them to percentages.
52-Week Range Trading Strategies
Investors can use a breakout strategy and buy a stock when it trades above its 52-week range, or open a short position when it trades below it. Aggressive traders could place a stop-limit order slightly above or below the 52-week trade to catch the initial breakout. Price often retraces back to the breakout level before resuming its trend; therefore, traders who want to take a more conservative approach may want to wait for a retracement before entering the market to avoid chasing the breakout.
Volume should be steadily increasing when a stock’s price nears the high or low of its 12-month range to show the issue has enough participation to break out to a new level. Trades could use indicators like the on-balance volume (OBV) to track rising volume. The breakout should ideally trade above or below a psychological number also, such as $50 or $100, to help gain the attention of institutional investors.
Investors can use a breakout strategy and buy a stock when it trades above its 52-week range, or open a short position when it trades below it. Aggressive traders could place a stop-limit order slightly above or below the 52-week trade to catch the initial breakout.
In other words, we simply identify the size of the 52-week range by subtracting the 52-week low from the 52-high.Then we divide this value by 52 in order to find the average weekly move of the price.
The 52-week low represents the lowest price at which a stock has been traded in the last year. This figure is important as it can signify a potential turning point or a period of undervaluation in a stock's market life.
52-week high breakout stocks are those that have recently hit their highest price in the past year, indicating potential for upward movement and strong performance in the stock market. Investors may interpret this as a signal to buy or hold the stock, expecting further price appreciation.
There are no complicated rules to remember. Week 1, you save $1.00. Week 2 you save $2.00, and it continues through the year, adding one more dollar to each week's savings goal. By Week 52, you'll set aside $52.00, which will bring the year's total savings to $1,378!
The 52-week high winners (losers) are the 30% of stocks that have the highest (lowest) 52-week high measure; the middle group consists of those that are neither winners nor losers. All portfolios are held for 6 months.
Definitely Yes, you can buy a stock when it is at 52 week high. Usually, we think that the stock is trading at a very high price, 52 week high denotes that the stock is currently trading at the highest price point in last one year. So we assume we are paying over price for the stock.
One calendar year has 365 days, divided into 7-day weeks. Divide the number of days in a year (365) by the days there are in a week (7): A year has on average 52.143 weeks = 52 weeks plus one day.
Gather your employee's pay data for the last 52 weeks of income. Then, take this total amount of income and divide it by 52. This will give you the average weekly pay for the last 52 weeks.
When the stock price trades reach and close near its 52-week high, the traders expect that the price will trade lower in the future as the 52-week high is considered the resistance level. As a result, many traders book their profits because they believe that the prices may reverse from the resistance level.
The range represents the highest and lowest price of a stock over a period of 52 weeks (a year). The two numbers show the extreme numbers that the price of a stock has either fallen to or risen to over a period of 52 weeks and its purpose is to guide you and I in making valid investment sell or buy decisions.
The 52-week high/low is the highest and lowest price at which a security has traded during the time period that equates to one year and is viewed as a technical indicator.
The 52-week high/low is based on the daily closing price for the security.
Inside bars are perhaps the most 'classic' price action breakout strategy because they show a breakout from the consolidation of the inside bar setup. On a lower time frame such as a 1 hour chart, a daily chart inside bar will look take the form of a consolidation range, sometimes a triangular range.
Buying stocks breaking out to new 52-week highs can be a momentum strategy, capitalising on upward price movements and potential continuation of the trend. Conversely, selling or short-selling stocks near their 52-week highs can be a contrarian strategy, betting on price reversals and potential pullbacks.
The 52-week high and low can be useful for several trading strategies. For example, when the price manages to rise above the 52-week high, then it might signal a breakout, prompting the traders to buy. Similarly, if the price falls below the 52-week low, it could indicate an opportunity to sell.
Getting started is simple: During your first week, you save $1.The next week, stash away $2.Increase the amount saved by $1 each week for 52 weeks — a full year.
The range represents the highest and lowest price of a stock over a period of 52 weeks (a year). The two numbers show the extreme numbers that the price of a stock has either fallen to or risen to over a period of 52 weeks and its purpose is to guide you and I in making valid investment sell or buy decisions.
The Microsoft 52-week high stock price is 468.35, which is 15.4% above the current share price. The Microsoft 52-week low stock price is. The average Microsoft stock price for the last 52 weeks is 397.12.
A 52-week high is the highest share price that a stock has traded at during a passing year. Many market aficionados view the 52-week high as an important factor in determining a stock's current value and predicting future price movement.
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