At the end of last month the Books section of the Weekend FT carried a review by Andrew Hill, senior business writer at the FT, of two Harvard-linked writers pondering the viability of sensible risk-taking. These were not the more […]

A virtual STA monthly meeting 12th September 2023 saw a presentation by Ashish Kyal who describes himself as: ‘Trader, Mentor and Founder of Wavesstrategy.com’. Based in Mumbai, it was nice to see that his many Indian followers had signed up […]

Andreas Clenow flew in from Zurich to give an in-person presentation at June’s regular STA monthly meeting. Billed in a lengthy promotional email as: ‘This presentation will demonstrate that there are flaws in point and figure which can be fixed. […]

A very long time ago a journalist specialising in Indian stocks working for the Hindustan Times contacted me at the dealing room of the Japanese bank where I worked as a technical analyst. He wanted views and comment, especially on […]

For weeks now sundry pundits, economists and technical analysts have been laying out their plans and predictions for the year 2023 – and some dare go beyond that. I suppose the best that might be said is that the huge […]

The International Federation of Technical Analysts www.ifta.org, of which the UK’s Society of Technical Analysts (STA) is one of 20 members, has for many years hosted annual conferences; the next one will be from the 7th to 9th October in […]

Thursday 23rd March 2022 Alessio gave an excellent webinar for the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA) entitled ‘Crypto Markets and the Wyckoff Method: A Top-Down Approach’. He’s a teaching instructor @WyckoffAnalysis whose website is www.wyckoffanalytics.com. Not being exactly au-fait […]

The teenage girlfriend two-timed you; your friends will tell you soon enough. Your lover ghosted you; it could take a while to get to grips with what’s going on. You were blackballed by your club or cancelled by your gang; […]

Most day traders and small-time punters will groan when asked to look at a chart where each candlestick (or bar) encompasses a whole year’s worth of price action. But you see, understanding the big picture parameters are key to long […]

A famous quote I love is this one from Eleanor Roosevelt: ‘I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.’ A firm […]

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 […]

All and sundry use moving averages, wittingly or unwittingly. A long-standing tool of choice for many technical analysts, the method, in its many guises, is used by other financial professionals, laymen and statisticians around the globe. Take UK consumer prices […]

As pointed out a fortnight ago in the STA blog, I believe that Charles Dow’s third tenet, that the market discounts all news, is the most important of his six. Put it another way, price contains all current knowledge, expectations […]

I was 13 minutes late for yesterday’s (25th February 2021) IFTA webinar presentation hosted by Wieland Arlt, board member of Germany’s VTAD technical analysis society. I felt terrible as I’d recently heard that a job-seeker’s interview had been immediately terminated […]

My father is Charles Dow – yes really; Charles Robert Dow, not the one you’re probably thinking of. Charles Henry Dow (1851-1902) is way too old, old enough to be my great grandfather. He’s not, but he’s certainly considered the […]

In the last week of January US stocks and their indices saw volatility pick up sharply. Mainstream media, which often overlooks business news in favour of something political – or better still gory – at long last jumped on the […]

Normally held as evening lectures at the London School of Economics, this autumn term the Society of Technical Analysts has turned to online and virtual reality in order to deliver its course. A pity, and a challenge, as so many […]

The word ‘confidence’ has been bandied about a lot of late; more specifically, prefaced by ‘lack of’. Currently centre stage in Britain is the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE. He is merely one among many, with ‘The Science’ and its 4 Chief Medical Officers (earning on average £259,000), Public Health England (which has had to be disbanded), and the judiciary too – just for good measure.

Currently Chief Market Strategist at StockCharts.com in Seattle, I’ve known David from his Bloomberg days. He also has a blog called The Mindful Investor, on which this excellent webinar is broadly based. Interestingly, his first chart maps the high and lows of his career progress as a technical analyst. An idea cobbled from interviewee graphic designer Ken, who he subsequently hired. Creativity and thinking outside the box are David’s strengths.

With lockdown being de rigueur this season, and all the talk of family bubbles, travel corridors, quarantining and social isolation, I happened to spot a few potential island reversals in the charts. Which then set me thinking about their validity, considering the other idea that gaps should be filled.