Unique to Barchart.com, Opinions analyzes a stock or commodity using 13 popular analytics in short-, medium- and long-term periods. Results are interpreted as buy, sell or hold signals, each with numeric ratings and summarized with an overall percentage buy or sell rating.

Each Opinion requires six months' worth of trading activity and run the prices through 13 different technical indicators. A link is provided at the top right of the page to Show or Hide Signal Strength and Direction. (View help for Signal Strength and Direction.)

After each calculation the program assigns a Buy, Sell or Hold value with the study, depending on where the price lies in reference to the common interpretation of the study. For example, a price above its moving average is generally considered an upward trend or a buy.

Each study links to a chart to give you a graphical interpretation of the result of the study.

When on the Barchart Opinion page, a link is provided at the top right of the page to Show or Hide Signal Strength and Direction. Get more information on Signal Strength and Direction.

Calculations
The Short, Medium and Long term indicators are grouped together and calculated separately for their groups. The overall indicator is a composite of all 13 studies listed on the page.

A Buy is assigned 1 point
A Sell is assigned -1 point
A Hold is assigned 0 points

Add up the totals for the different groups and divide this number by the amount of studies in the group, and take this number as a percentage. If the total is greater than zero, then this signals a Buy. If the total is zero, then this signals a Hold and if the total is less than zero, then this signals a Sell.

To keep the results in a more logical format, we factor the overall opinion by 1.04 to keep the end result in eighths, with the exception of a 100% buy or sells. This is why the opinions will be displayed {8%, 16%, ... 88%, 96% and 100%} rather the true calculated value over the number thirteen.

Get more information on how Opinions are calculated.

At the bottom of the Opinion page is the price the Opinion studies are based on, along with the Support, Pivot Point, and Resistance numbers.

Opinions are updated every ten minutes throughout the day, using delayed data from the exchanges.