What Is the 52-Week Range?

The 52-week range is a data point traditionally reported by printed financial news media, but more modernly included in data feeds from financial information sources online. The data point includes the lowest and highest price at which a stock has traded during the previous 52 weeks.

Investors use this information as a proxy for how much fluctuation and risk they may have to endure over the course of a year should they choose to invest in a given stock. Investors can find a stock’s 52-week range in a stock’s quote summary provided by a broker or financial information website. The visual representation of this data can be observed on a price chart that displays one year’s worth of price data.

Understanding the 52-Week Range

The 52-week range can be a single data point of two numbers: the highest and lowest price for the previous year. But there is much more to the story than these two numbers alone. Visualizing the data in a chart to show the price action for the entire year can provide a much better context for how these numbers are generated.

Since price movement is not always balanced and rarely symmetrical, it is important for an investor to know which number was more recent, the high or the low. Usually an investor will assume the number closest to the current price is the most recent one, but this is not always the case, and not knowing the correct information can make for costly investment decisions.

Two examples of the 52-week range in the following chart show how useful it might be to compare the high and low prices with the larger picture of the price data over the past year.

These examples show virtually the same high and low data points for a 52-week range (set 1 marked in blue lines) and a trend that seems to indicate a short-term downward move ahead.

The overlapping range on the same stock (set 2 marked in red lines) now seems to imply that an upward move may be following at least in the short term. Both of these trends can be seen to play out as expected (though such outcomes are never certain). Technical analysts compare a stock’s current trading price and its recent trend to its 52-week range to get a broad sense of how the stock is performing relative to the past 12 months. They also look to see how much the stock’s price has fluctuated, and whether such fluctuation is likely to continue or even increase.

The information from the high and low data points may indicate the potential future range of the stock and how volatile its price is, but only the trend and relative strength studies can help a trader or analyst understand the context of those two data points. Most financial websites that quote a stock’s share price also quote its 52-week range. Sites like Yahoo Finance, Finviz.com and StockCharts.com allow investors to scan for stocks trading at their 12-month high or low.

Current Price Relative to 52-Week Range

To calculate where a stock is currently trading at in relations to its 52-week high and low, consider the following example:

Suppose over the last year that a stock has traded as high as $100, as low as $50 and is currently trading at $70. This means the stock is trading 30% below its 52-week high (1-(70/100) = 0.30 or 30%) and 40% above its 52-week low ((70/50) – 1 = 0.40 or 40%). These calculations take the difference between the current price and the high or low price over the past 12 months and then convert them to percentages.

52-Week Range Trading Strategies

Investors can use a breakout strategy and buy a stock when it trades above its 52-week range, or open a short position when it trades below it. Aggressive traders could place a stop-limit order slightly above or below the 52-week trade to catch the initial breakout. Price often retraces back to the breakout level before resuming its trend; therefore, traders who want to take a more conservative approach may want to wait for a retracement before entering the market to avoid chasing the breakout.

Volume should be steadily increasing when a stock’s price nears the high or low of its 12-month range to show the issue has enough participation to break out to a new level. Trades could use indicators like the on-balance volume (OBV) to track rising volume. The breakout should ideally trade above or below a psychological number also, such as $50 or $100, to help gain the attention of institutional investors.

What Is Arc Elasticity?

Arc elasticity is the elasticity of one variable with respect to another between two given points. It is used when there is no general way to define the relationship between the two variables. Arc elasticity is also defined as the elasticity between two points on a curve.

The concept is used in both economics and mathematics. In economics, is it commonly used to measure the changes between the quantity of goods demanded and their prices.

Understanding Arc Elasticity

In economics, arc elasticity is commonly used in relation to the law of demand to measure percentage changes between the quantity of goods demanded and prices.

There are two possible ways of calculating elasticity—price (or point) elasticity of demand and arc elasticity of demand. Price elasticity of demand measures the responsiveness of quantity demanded to a price. It takes the elasticity of demand at a particular point on the demand curve, or between two points on the curve. Arc elasticity of demand uses a midpoint between the two points.

Formula for Price (Point) Elasticity of Demand


$PE_d = \dfrac{\text{\% Change in Qty}}{\text{\% Change in Price}}$PEd​=% Change in Price% Change in Qty​

How to Calculate the Price Elasticity of Demand

If the price of a product decreases from $10 to $8, leading to an increase in quantity demanded from 40 to 60 units, then the price elasticity of demand can be calculated as:

• % change in quantity demanded = (Qd₂ – Qd₁) / Qd₁ = (60 – 40) / 40 = 0.5
• % change in price = (P₂ – P₁) / P₁ = (8 – 10) / 10 = -0.2
• Thus, PE_d= 0.5 / -0.2 = 2.5

Since we’re concerned with the absolute values in price elasticity, the negative sign is ignored. You can conclude that the price elasticity of this good, when the price decreases from $10 to $8, is 2.5.

Arc Elasticity of Demand

One of the problems with the price elasticity of demand formula is that it gives different values depending on whether price rises or falls. If you were to use different start and end points in our example above—that is, if you assume the price increased from $8 to $10—and the quantity demanded decreased from 60 to 40, the Pe_d will be:

• % change in quantity demanded = (40 – 60) / 60 = -0.33
• % change in price = (10 – 8) / 8 = 0.25
• PE_d = -0.33 / 0.25 = 1.32, which is much different from 2.5

How to Calculate the Arc Elasticity of Demand

To eliminate this problem, the arc elasticity of demand can be used. Arc elasticity of demand measures elasticity at the midpoint between two selected points on the demand curve by using a midpoint between the two points. The arc elasticity of demand can be calculated as:

• Arc E_d = [(Qd₂ – Qd₁) / midpoint Qd] ÷ [(P₂ – P₁) / midpoint P]

Let’s calculate the arc elasticity following the example presented above:

• Midpoint Qd = (Qd₁ + Qd₂) / 2 = (40 + 60) / 2 = 50
• Midpoint Price = (P₁ + P₂) / 2 = (10 + 8) / 2 = 9
• % change in qty demanded = (60 – 40) / 50 = 0.4
• % change in price = (8 – 10) / 9 = -0.22
• Arc E_d = 0.4 / -0.22 = 1.82

When you use arc elasticity of demand you do not need to worry about which point is the starting point and which point is the ending point since the arc elasticity gives the same value for elasticity whether prices rise or fall.

The Bottom Line

Arc elasticity is commonly used in economics to determine the percentage of change between the demand for goods and their price. Elasticity can be calculated in two ways—price elasticity of demand and arc elasticity of demand. The latter is more useful when there is a significant change in price.

What is Autarky?

Autarky refers to a nation that operates in a state of self-reliance. Nations that follow a policy of autarky are characterized by self-sufficiency and limited trade with global partners. The definition of autarky comes from the Greek—autos, meaning “self” and arkein, meaning “to ward off” and “to be strong enough, to suffice.” A fully autarkic nation would be a closed economy and lacking any sources of external support, trade or aid. In practice, however, no modern nation has achieved this level of autarky, even when subjected to punishing sanctions. This is because the global supply chain has made true economic isolation difficult, so any policy of autarky is a matter of degrees rather than a complete isolation.

Understanding Autarky

Autarky can be thought of as an extreme form of economic nationalism and protectionism. The motivation behind a policy of autarky is usually a combination of securing the supply of important goods and a desire to reduce the dependence on other nations in general. Depending on the type of political structure in a nation, the goal of reducing dependence on outside nations may be related to reducing the influence of competing political and economic systems. At various points in history, however, autarky has been proposed by groups all across the political spectrum. When framed in terms of keeping domestic spending at home or stopping the transfer of wealth to bad political actors, autarky touches populist themes and appears to make practical sense.

In practice, however, autarky has economic downsides that are not immediately apparent in the populist arguments. Autarky was first questioned by economist Adam Smith, and then David Ricardo. Smith suggested that countries should engage in free trade and specialize in goods they have an absolute advantage in producing, in order to generate more wealth. This is one of the core arguments Smith made in favor of free trade in The Wealth of Nations. Ricardo amended this argument slightly, saying that countries should also produce goods in which they have a comparative advantage. By leveraging comparative advantages, countries are able to work together to create more wealth in the global system of trade.

Put another way, opting out of global trade in favor of doing it all domestically has a high opportunity cost for nations, just as it does for individuals. For example, a family preoccupied with sewing their own clothes, building their own furniture, and growing their own food will necessarily have less time to work outside the home for wages. This will likely result in less income for the household and less workers for nearby employers – and, ultimately, a smaller economy due to the high degree of self-sufficiency being practiced. This is true on a global scale as well.

Real World Examples of Autarky

Historically, autarkic policies have been deployed to different extents. Western European countries deployed them under mercantilist policies from the 16th to the 18th century. This spurred economists like Smith, Ricardo, and Frederic Bastiat to refine free-market and free-trade philosophies as counter arguments.

Nazi Germany also implemented a form or autarky to ensure the strategic supply needed for its war efforts. Today, North Korea stands as the main example of a policy of autarky. North Korea’s economic isolation is a mixture of intentional self-reliance to reduce international political influence and imposed self-reliance due to being cut out of international trade through sanctions.

Autarky and the Autarkic Price

A related term, autarky price or autarkic price, refers to the cost of a good in an autarkic state. The cost of producing in a closed economy must be covered by the price charged for the good. If the cost is higher relative to other nations, then the autarky price is a dead loss for that national economy. The autarkic price is sometimes used as an economic variable when roughly calculating where a nation’s comparative advantages are. In practice, however, comparative advantages are discovered through market mechanisms rather than an economic model.