Smoothing the noise
A moving average is the average closing price over the last N days, recalculated each day. It smooths jagged price into a single line that shows the underlying drift. The 50-day (medium term) and 200-day (long term) are the two most-watched.
A Simple MA (SMA) weights every day equally; an Exponential MA (EMA) weights recent days more, so it turns faster. Faster isn't better — it just trades lag for more false turns.
How they're used
Price above a rising 200-day MA is the classic definition of a healthy long-term uptrend; below a falling 200-day is a downtrend. MAs also act as dynamic support/resistance — price often bounces off the 50-day in a strong trend.
MAs lag by construction — they describe the trend that already happened. They're a context tool, not a crystal ball.
Which averages to watch
You don't need ten MAs. The 200-day defines the long-term regime, the 50-day the medium-term, and a fast 20-day (often EMA) tracks the short-term swing. Use an EMA when you want responsiveness, an SMA when you want stability and fewer whipsaws.
MAs as dynamic support
In a strong uptrend, price often pulls back to a rising moving average and bounces — the 20 or 50-day acting as a moving floor. That gives a repeatable, lower-risk way to join a trend: wait for the pullback to the average rather than chasing the extension. The slope of the average frequently matters more than price's exact distance from it.