Definition
Plain language
A stock-chart number that compares two running averages of a price to describe its trend.
As stated in the literature
Moving Average Convergence Divergence: the difference between a fast and a slow exponential moving average of price, typically plotted against a signal line.
Why it matters: It is one of the standard-looking numbers that appears on trading dashboards, which makes it a convincing prop — real or fabricated — in anything presented as financial analysis.
For example, a trader might watch for the moment a stock's fast average crosses above its slow average and read that crossing as a sign the trend is turning upward.
Heard on the show
“Indicators like RSI and MACD aren’t literally noise.”Episode 251 — When a Fake Dashboard Makes an AI Agent Just as Confident