Simple versus exponential averages on a daily chart

In the Pathum Wan room we still draw both. A simple moving average treats each closing print in the window as equal. An exponential average leans harder on the recent closes. Neither is “faster” in a moral sense. One is a different sentence about the same prices.

Students often pick EMA because it looks more alive. That liveliness is lag of a different shape. On a quiet SET daily chart, the EMA will twitch through a range that a longer SMA simply sits through. If your rule is “I only act when the average turns,” the twitch becomes a pile of false turns.

Workshop practice: mark the same twenty sessions with SMA 20 and EMA 20. Count how many times each would have asked you to change stance. Write the count on the chart. The number is the lesson, not the preference.

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