STA Blog

Anthony is Director and Head of Market Analysis at proprietary trading and EdTech firm, Amplify Trading. Tackling global macro strategies across asset classes, he has over 14 years experience in covering EU, US, Asia-Pacific time zones across FX, equity, fixed income and commodity markets specialising in fundamental news and analysis. This STA Monthly meeting, the first held in person since the original lockdown, was Tuesday 12 October at at our old haunt: Chartered Accountants Hall, 1 Moorgate Place, London EC2R 6EA. Those unable to attend had the option to view live via Zoom, and there were a great many of them. The presentation was also recorded and will be made available to STA members shortly.

Admitting he’s a special case, a fundamental analyst being asked to speak at an STA meeting, he was proposed by Jeremy du Plessis FSTA because he also uses some technical analysis. His brother founded RANsquawck, part of the Refco group and they pioneered the news/analysis YouTube feed so many traders depend on today.

Anthony was engaging, quite the showman as his many videos attest, his presentation simple (5 main slides) but with lots of up-to-date examples and anecdotes from personal experience. Slide 1: Where to start with fundamentals. Slide 2: Know the drivers of your product (too many don’t). Slide 3: Understand your investment horizon (i.e. yourself). Slide 4: Trading the news (where he, like so many economists, favour situations where the macro news is backed-up by technical analysis). Slide 5: Market sentiment checklist – where he admits: ‘’I am open to a technical perspective’’, for example long term trend lines.

As a journalist I found his subsection to point 4 on how to read the news very enlightening. Using a structured approach and covering a good cross-section of resources, yet because there is too much news ‘’ask yourself; what really matters right now? Be brutal – eliminate everything that is irrelevant’’. Preparing for upcoming [economic] news was also worth considering. As my daughter’s strict headmistress used to say: the school day starts the night before: prepare in advance, homework done, and as Anthony adds: ‘’what’s the playbook?’’.

He is wise to remind us all: ‘’I am just a minnow and I have no power’’.