CNBC’s ‘Mad Money’ Jim Cramer is certainly not my favourite business TV presenter (too much shouting!)  But for once he had something interesting to say, slipped in during quiet markets at year-end.  ‘You may not be a technician but you […]

Last week the Financial Times published an article entitled: The Dow Jones – a flawed measure but with a rich history with the sub-heading A visual biography of the all-American average as it nears 20,000. Doesn’t exactly jump off the […]

Fairly recently the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street took to Twitter with @bankofengland.  Describing itself as a forum for staff to share views that challenge – or support – prevailing policy orthodoxies, opinions are clearly labelled as those of the […]

As has been the case for the last few years, January’s monthly STA meeting takes a panel discussion format – where we continue to encourage audience participation.  Seeing as they were getting three speakers for the price of one, the […]

For those of you who couldn’t make the STA’s 30th birthday party on the 30th November – you missed a real treat.  Originally ACTA (the Association of Chart and Technical Analysts founded in 1968) Philip Gray, Fellow of the Society […]

Describing himself as a financial historian Russell Napier’s talk at the STA’s December meeting was thorough yet refreshing.  Willing to cut through jargon, slice and dice received wisdom, hack through complacency, and generally challenge the status quo, he certainly got […]

For some years now the STA has been holding its annual dinner at the National Liberal Club – preferably when the Liberal Party’s MPs and supporters are off in another UK city attending their annual conference.  You see, STA members […]

You may not use it yourself, but you’ve probably heard of the Andrews Pitchfork.  At first sight it looks like some sort of mean regression with standard deviations either side and, because of this, it is also known as the […]

Saturday I was invited to take part in a panel discussion at the Financial Trading Summit in London’s May Fair Hotel, organised by a UK online broker and spread betting firm; it was well attended and judged a success.  I […]

Stock, bond, and FX markets have been on a wild ride since the so-called ‘surprise’ election of Donald Trump as 45th US President.  He doesn’t start the job until January but already there is much speculation as to who he […]

Remember, remember the 5th of November – and while most of the UK was planning bonfires and baked potatoes, traders had quite another fish to fry.  Organised by Simon Campbell who has several years’ experience under his belt, the Connaught […]

Historical data has value, adds perspective, and is an interesting pursuit in itself. Providers of analytics and technical analysis boast about how far back their charts go; the reality is that this is the case for only a handful of […]

I know this isn’t pure technical analysis but I thought you might be interested in some recent research from the bank’s Asset Management division which I received.  If nothing else it is a salutary lesson in how careful one must […]

An STA member very kindly sent me a link to an old but interesting article published in The Economist magazine.  It gives details of studies conducted into the concept of momentum in financial markets and how to square this with […]

Yesterday’s speaker at the STA’s monthly meeting was a breath of fresh air – flying in from the outback via the Jesuits who helped him hone his fantastic memory for numbers (he says).  A handy skill as Stephen M Barrett […]

From time immemorial man has tried to predict the future.  Using omens, soothsayers and the stars, moving through to accountants who delve into the details of a company ‘Dragons Den’ style to decide whether to invest, or big-picture thinking known as macro-economics, the top-down study of global economic trends.

This year I’ve found charting gold very difficult indeed.  Not so impossible that I begin to doubt my abilities as a technical analyst, but hard enough to warrant a lot of head scratching, caution with my forecasts, and to remind […]

An introduction to the Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonacci (circa 1170-1250), will be dispensed with as the man is less relevant to this article than what he documented in his 13th century book Liber Abaci: namely his discovery of the Hindu number sequence […]

Lambeth born Lee Sandford started as an apprentice for Portsmouth Football Club at the age of 13 on just over 13 quid a week.  By 17 he’d turned professional working his way through to Stoke City and Sheffield United.  While […]

We all know that it takes opposing opinions to make a market; that prices will change as these shift, sometimes slowly, dramatically at other times.  Brexit was perhaps a good example of received wisdom taking a real hit.  Some suggest […]