What's the difference between 365D, 52W, 12M, 1Y in stock market?

Question

I would like to calc calculate SMA (Simple Moving Average) these kind of data myself and found the following question:

1. What's the difference between 365D, 52W, 12M, 1Y in stock market?
2. Does holiday also being counted in the above period?

Thanks.

Answer 1

365D is represented on a daily chart where the Open, High, Low and Close are for each day the market is open. It represents 365 trading days. So if your SMA is based on the closed prices it would represent the average daily close price over the previous 365 days. As each day progresses the previous 365th day will be dropped off the average and the previous day will be added to it. To represent one year in a SMA you would need to include 52 weeks x 5 trading days per week minus any public holidays that fall on a trading day.

52W is represented on a weekly chart where the Open, High, Low and Close are for each week. So the Open would be the opening price on Monday morning, the Close would be the closing price on Friday afternoon, and the High and Low would be the highest and lowest prices during the week. If your SMA is based on the weekly close price it would represent the average weekly close (the close price for each Friday afternoon unless the Friday is a public holiday then the close price on Thursday afternoon) over the previous 52 weeks.

12M is represented on a monthly chart where the Open, High, Low and Close are for each month. So the Open would be the opening price on the morning of the 1st of the months (or first trading day of the month), the Close would be the closing price on the afternoon of the last trading day of the month, and the High and Low would be the highest and lowest prices during the month. If your SMA is based on the monthly close price it would represent the average monthly close (the close price for the afternoon of the last trading day of the month) over the previous 12 months.

1Y is represented on a yearly chart where the Open, High, Low and Close are for each year. So the Open would be the opening price on the morning of the first trading day of the year, the Close would be the closing price on the afternoon of the last trading day of the year, and the High and Low would be the highest and lowest prices during the year. Note: a 1Y SMA on a yearly chart would simply represent the close price for each year, so the get an effective SMA on a yearly chart you would need to use a longer period than 1Y.

So 52W, 12M and 1Y all represent one year on a chart, however, 365D would actually represent more than a year because there are less than 365 trading days in a year.

Also, to use both monthly or yearly charts you would want to be looking at very long term time periods, or else the chart would not tell you very much and be better represented in either weekly or daily time frames. For Monthly charts you would want to be looking at least at 5 years plus of data, and for yearly charts at least 50 to 100 years or more of data.