An indicator widely used in technical analysis that helps smooth price action by filtering out "noise" from random price fluctuations. MA (moving average) is an indicator that follows a trend or lags because it is based on past prices. The two basic and commonly used MAs are simple moving averages (SMA), which are the simple averages of a security over a certain period of time, and the exponential moving average (EMA), which gives greater weight to newer prices. The most common MA applications are to identify the direction of the trend and to determine support and resistance levels. While MAs are quite useful on their own, they also form the basis for other indicators such as Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD).