Technical analysis has one big drawback compared to fundamental, because it only uses the stock's history and does not take reasoning and information into effect. It is purely based on past performance, and past performance has really nothing to do with the future. It can help in taking advantage of price changes in volatile stocks. Many people try to find a technique that will help them buy and sell stocks at the right time. There are many techniques developed over the years, and some people have been more successful than others.
Charts are the most common way of looking at stock prices.
Charts can easily be obtained from broker's web sites and can be displayed in many ways. The nice thing about charts is that it is easy to see how the stock acts from day to day or from week to week, or over a longer period of time. As an investor you can also keep track of the stock prices personally and make customized charts for your own interest. Charts can be displayed in many ways, but the most important is that they show and represent the changes that are of interest to the technical analyzer. Most charts show the closing value of the stock for each day, week or month.