STA Blog

There was a lot of catching up to do what with lockdowns and post-Covid, which resulted in a great turnout for the second informal STA party. As well as drinks and canapés, we were there for the awarding of Diploma Certificates to the latest batch of successful STA examinees, three special prizes for excellence, and the appointment of a new Fellow to our society.

At the top of the grand circular staircase was Katie Abberton checking invites and greeting guests together with STA Chairman Eddie Tofpik. He’d roped in his son Nicholas and daughter Jessica to help. I think it might have been something to do with the books Eddie had ordered to distribute to guests, celebrating over 50 years of the Society of Technical Analysts (“Striking Gold”). A very thorough collection of articles which had previously appeared in our Market Technician journal, ably curated and collated by David Watts.

On hand to cheer on joint 2020 Bronwen Wood memorial prize-winner Abdullah Abbasi was his Dad. Also keeping it in the family was Victoria Scholar’s Mum as her daughter was the other joint winner of the prize. Talking afterwards to STA Chief Examiner Luise Kliem FSTA she explained how both candidates got over 90% marks in their Diploma II exams and there was ‘’really nothing to choose between them’’. Then up bounded Oliver Myers who won the 2021 Bronwen Wood award. Bronwen was one of the founder Board members of the modern STA and died suddenly in December 2002. She was instrumental in developing both the STA Diploma Examination and its courses. She wrote and marked all the papers in the early years.

The STA also awarded a Fellowship to Trevor Neil, much to my delight and his surprise. ‘’I’m shocked! I wasn’t prepared. It’s truly a great honour to be recognised by peers. Infrequently I get an accolade’’. Ever the understated gent.

Chatting randomly with guests, Yulia Zhizhaeva (who works for an energy supplier) told me she’d studied for the Diploma online because while having a good grasp of market fundamentals, she felt she ‘’needed extra tools to enhance strategies and needed structured learning to do this’’. Tomáš Novotny had flown over from Prague for our event ‘’to meet new colleagues and discover more IFTA information’’.
UK firm IG fielded a strong presence, maybe because ex-chairman Axel Rudolph is now working there full-time. Josh Mahoney had popped in ‘’to support Victoria’’ (who used to work at IG). Frederic Guetin, news producer with Jeremy Naylor (both ex-Bloomberg) came because ‘’I didn’t get it before, but now I know technical analysis is fascinating’’.