Stock exchanges are important institutional structures in terms of broadening capital ownership, channeling savings into the economy, and enabling individuals to become shareholders in leading companies within the national economy. In this respect, they perform a financial intermediation function for both investors and firms. However, the assumption of the Efficient Market Hypothesis—that all investors simultaneously possess the same information and the same capacity to interpret it—rarely holds true in practice. Factors such as information asymmetry, irrational behavior, and market sentiment render investment decisions based solely on logic or intuition insufficient. Consequently, the need for systematic analysis methods has increased over time.

In response to this need, the technical analysis approach—developed in the 18th century—aims to forecast future price trends by using historical price movements and trading volume data. Technical analysis serves as a guiding tool for investors, particularly in determining market timing and holding periods. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this method is closely related to the investor’s level of knowledge, experience, and analytical discipline.

In this study, the theory of technical analysis is discussed in general terms, and empirical analyses are conducted using commonly employed indicators in the literature—such as the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) and the Relative Strength Index (RSI)—as well as a newly developed indicator, the MOST method, which is introduced to contribute to the literature. The empirical application is carried out on 18 stocks that were continuously included in the Borsa İstanbul (BIST) 30 Index over the period from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2022.

Methodologically, trading strategies are constructed based on the BUY–SELL signals generated by each indicator, and the resulting returns are compared with those obtained from a BUY–HOLD strategy. The findings indicate that the BUY–HOLD strategy yields the highest returns in the long run. The MACD indicator is found to closely track overall market returns, whereas the performance of the RSI and MOST indicators remains below the market average.

In conclusion, the study provides a comparative assessment of how different technical analysis indicators perform under varying market conditions and offers an empirical foundation that can be utilized in investors’ decision-making processes. Overall, the findings deliver valuable insights regarding which strategies may be more effective under specific market conditions. Accordingly, investors may benefit from selecting stocks for which their preferred indicators demonstrate stronger performance, or alternatively, from choosing indicators that yield better results for the stocks they intend to invest in.