Traders use moving averages to remove random fluctuations from price data.
Some moving averages work better than others. Take a look. I discussed the lags between the turning point of a simple test data sequence and the turning points of three types of moving averages. I showed that for equal moving average periods, the three moving averages had markedly different lag characteristics. While it is important to define the lag characteristics of a data smoother, there is another, even more basic, question that must be addressed about the performance of the smoothing function.