If, like me, you have spent way too many hours, days, and years studying charts – and more often than not staring blankly at computer screens – it’s nice to know some things only have to be done very occasionally; […]

These were the themes of Minouche Shafik, Deputy Governor markets and banking at the Bank of England, who chose the Institute of Directors’ grand premises on Pall Mall as the venue for her first major monetary policy speech. With a […]

DEFINITION: A characteristic of a time series in which the data experiences regular and predictable changes which recur every calendar year. Any predictable change or pattern in a time series that recurs or repeats over a one-year period can be […]

For those of you who could not make it to the STA Annual Dinner yesterday, we offer a glimpse into what was another successful and enjoyable evening. Pre-dinner drinks in the so-called smoking room (which is only permitted on the […]

Yesterday something completely different happened at the regular STA monthly meeting: a talk without charts! Well, just one but none of us managed to guess what it was: blood sugar levels of an Israeli parole board, so not an entirely […]

They’re easy to spot, but do we really know what they mean? October saw strong rallies in many equity indices and it got me thinking. First reactions are shock and awe, glee too, but digging a little deeper are the […]

We all know that bear markets work differently to bull ones, whether you look at it from an Elliott Wave perspective (five phases on the way up but only three on the decline), patterns (blow-off tops versus rounded bottoms), and […]

Technical analysis is truly international, not just because it has practitioners spread across the globe but because it is a common language we can all understand and relate to. It is another lingua franca, not like Esperanto but like maths, […]

The STA’s October monthly meeting was a real knock-out – but then what else would one expect from Jeremy? Timed to coincide with the release of his second book – 21st Century Point and Figure (our library has a copy) […]

Primary school first introduced us to basic charts, cutting up a pie into equal-sized portions to feed all those around the table, plotting the height of class members as a histogram, or a line linking the number of hours’ worth […]

The S&P 500 index this year had held in the tiniest range in decades – 3.5 per cent either side of its opening level – then in August the beast turned nasty. Taking so many by surprise the Vix index, […]

The quickest and easiest way to establish a trend is by drawing a trend line, yet it is unbelievable and frightening how often these are done incorrectly. At the risk of being pedantic and accused of treating readers condescendingly, we […]

In the olden days charts were kept by hand. Graph paper was usually white, though sometimes pale green was preferred as it is said to be easier on the eye. Sharpened pencils at the ready the working day started and […]

School’s out for summer and for once the pound is stronger against the euro. This becomes immediately apparent as you walk past the bureau de change along the high street but the question is whether it’s the euro’s fault (and […]

The summer sales are in full swing on the UK High Street, red banners proclaiming savings of 20, 40 and up to 70 per cent off the original retail price. Having become used to year-round promotions, become cynical about marketing […]

Founder member of the STA Philip Gray treated us to a no-holds-barred look into manias and the madness of crowds last night. Warning us: ‘this lecture will seriously damage your wealth’ he regaled us with interesting, and many hilarious anecdotes […]

There are many rules of thumb involving market moves and the size of these; a ten per cent stock market decline is called a correction and 20 per cent drop a bear market. But what can we conclude when markets […]

How many roll up their sleeves in a hurry, study the price chart of their favourite financial instrument, using the same old methods and time frame, all the time. When questioned, the usual retort is that this is their preferred […]

With the British summer social season at full tilt – Queen’s and Ascot this week, Chelsea and Epsom earlier – I was thinking of how this affects markets. Personally I have never been a great one for cycles, agricultural, Fibonacci […]

So said Dr Keith Anderson yesterday at the STA’s monthly meeting in London. An interesting talk based on lectures given to third year students in finance at York University – and it showed. Perfect timing, good clear slides, lots of […]