The Simple Moving Average (SMA) calculates the average closing prices over a specified number of periods (n). A distinguishing characteristic of the SMA is that it assigns equal weight to each trading day within the n-period, meaning that both the most recent closing price and the closing price from n days ago carry the same significance in the calculation. For instance, in a 75-day SMA, the most recent closing price is weighted equally with the closing price from approximately three months ago.