I believe that the number of Bitcoin transactions is a good indicator of the underlying economy, and very useful for fundamental analysis.
Most analysts and pundits who refer to the number of transactions prefer an alternate chart available from Blockchain.info . . .
https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions-excluding-popular?timespan=2year&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=7&show_header=true&scale=1&address=Popular addresses are excluded from the preferred chart because of the issue with numerous dust transactions related to gambling sites, e.g. Satoshi Dice last year.
It appears from that indicator that the number of Bitcoin transactions increases at about 5x per year and the trend continues. Given the bitcoin prices have increased at a rate of 10x per year, one may ask whether prices have gotten far ahead of transactions. I hypothesize that prices are ahead because speculators have the future in mind, not the present.
Using data presented by
http://www.coinometrics.com/bitcoin/tix, the sum of competing payment network transactions is 345,292,000 per day. Using the Blockchain.info figure of 58,620 for adjusted current daily Bitcoin transactions, then at 5x increase per year, the number of daily bitcoin transactions will exceed the current bank card, amex, paypal, etc. competition in five or six more years.