Technical analysis—the method of understanding the patterns and trends of stock prices—is used by investors in order to observe certain trends in the movement of a stock’s price, as seen on a graph or chart that would indicate a buying or selling opportunity. The model doesn’t necessarily consider how “good” a company is, the quality of its products, or whether the unemployment rate just increased. The primary focus is to analyze the mathematical variables that may influence the trend in the price of a stock, and to use this information to profit in the future from those trends.