STA Blog

Robin Mesch, President of Mesch Capital Management INC of Portland, Oregon, gave an excellent presentation at yesterday’s (11 May 2021) STA Monthly Meeting. Her speciality is Market Profile, learnt first hand from its developer Peter Steidlmayer, who also set up the chart vendor CQG. All three have their roots in the futures markets, Robin in Treasury bonds and cocoa – though now her focus is mainly on equities and ‘’options are not my expertise’’.

A poised delivery (the dark blue Austrian blinds behind her setting off her long blonde hair and elegant interior), superb set of slides, and carefully curated top-notch content, were a delight to view.

In a way it was a continuation of the IFTA 2014 Market Profile (MP) introduction she gave in London (the video of which is available to STA members), and so she started with a very brief introduction ‘’so that we can all go into the new material together’’.

Now she prefers to call MP ‘Price Usage Charts’, the bedrock of her ‘Mesch Method of Matching Modes’, and the ‘Controlling Mode’ – all concepts she appears to have trade-marked. She does not feel her method is technical analysis, while admitting that ‘’technical analysis is a fantastic way in how we see the market and organise the data’’. Rather, ‘’MP is a visual display and tracks progression’’.

The (sideways on, right-facing) Bell curves that are created are a consensus around a mode; these, when conjoined, create ‘‘the story [where] context is key’’.

Using an excellent chart of the US dollar index she separates areas where price is building fair value – think of it as congestion and consensus – versus distribution, which is when we see a breakout and a trend. She elaborates on the theme of ‘’trusting what the market’s telling you’’ with a dollar/yen futures chart, where she adjusts the start and end dates over a long term horizon – between 2012 and May 6th 2021. Her crude oil chart is even more interesting, covering, in stages, a period between 1990 and 2020. Interestingly, she no longer uses daily profiles because the ‘’markets have changed so much’’.

Asked which charting packages are good (she uses MCM Trade Signal), she suggests the first question you ask your vendor is whether you can make your own profiles and splits; ‘’every time frame has its day in court’’.

This video will be available shortly to STA members; in the meantime I suggest you watch the previous one of this slick, entertaining operator.