Bill will take as his starting point his recent lecture for the Diploma Course and develop the rather neglected theme of Dow Theory as far his allotted span permits.

The soft commodities are particularly prone to swings on rumour, political events and weather, making careful analysis of the charts for risk/reward opportunities an essential part of any trading plan. During her talk, Elizabeth will cover the background fundamentals of the marketplace, and how to interpret the charts with that knowledge.

After starting with charts of essential items like Gold, Oil and a few Currencies, he will show charts of the Major Indices before moving on to highlight the Best and Worst from the FTSE 100 list. He will conclude with a selection of the most bullish and promising charts in the FTSE250 and the FTSE SmallCap indices. The charts will be selected on the morning of the 12th January and, hopefully, there will be a few topical messages or themes at the start of 2005.

Using the same skills which consistently beat fund managers, a mixture of technicals (trend following, momentum, statistical) and fundamentals Alpesh will discuss his favourite UK and global stocks, including ADRs (especially Brazilian, Indian, Chinese and Russian stocks), and Exchange Traded Funds for 2005. Also, where he sees the major indices going. Keeping with the jovial Christmas spirit, he will also host “Who wants to be a “TA” Millionaire”, and provide “alternative” top trader advice.

Basically, David will reprise his talk of two years ago, with an emphasis on the advances in the technology/cost equation and systems developed since then. He will focus on the software solutions available to professional practitioners and private investors alike. If time allows he will look at some of the more modern trading technologies available today for the analysis of time series data. Unlike the uncertain background of two years ago, markets and job prospects seem more settled. That said, members should need no reminder that markets can and do turn on a sixpence, (and if they do, they are likely to lose money), so prospects may change…

Julian will outline some of the methods he uses to trade and how he applies technical analysis across a range of markets and timeframes. He will illustrate how he identifies the “ price acceleration “ trades which make the easiest positive returns.

The approach will outline the more aggressive approach that comes from managing a leveraged trading portfolio and the emphasis that is placed on money management. Julian will also refresh the money management techniques he showed members when last he addressed the STA in May 2002. He will explain why he spends much of his time in perfecting these instead of trying to find the “perfect” entry system.

The Wyckoff Method of technical analysis is a pattern recognition system that requires judgment. Although the Wyckoff Method is not a mechanical system per se, nevertheless high reward/low risk opportunities can be routinely and systematically identified using Wyckoff’s three laws and nine tests. Hank will present and illustrate these laws and tests.

Axel will use the title as his theme, to examine the accuracy of this old London stockmarket lore, and the methodology to quantify it. He will analyse the Dow Jones Index as well as the DJ Euro-Stoxx-50 Index to show how a technical analyst can beat equity markets over a three to five year time span whilst keeping risk exposure to roughly half of that of a buy and hold strategy. He will end his talk with an outlook for the year ahead.

Stephen will demonstrate why he believes controlling Risk is so important, and why it represents one of the most fundamental building blocks for a successful approach to trading. He will outline recent trades on different time frames, from Daily to three minute charts to demonstrate the principles involved. Stephen will also introduce advanced trade management techniques that will help maximise profits that traders can utilize, to help run their profits when applicable.

WD Gann’s swing chart looks like the ideal chart for swing trading, but the stop losses required are so huge that some modifications are necessary. Marc will talk about the modifications he has made to the Gann swing chart and show how essential it is either to draw the swing chart or visualise it on the chart. Marc will demonstrate how the modified swing chart is ideal not only for trend definition of the market as a whole, but also as practical trading tool.

Optimisation is a controversial subject. 20 years ago it was thought by many, including the speaker, to be the path to the ‘Holy Grail’. When it was discovered not to be the case, it was abandoned. Jeremy will look at Optimisation from a Technical Analyst’s point of view. He will discuss what it is and explore whether it can in fact be used by Technical Analysts to improve their decision-making.

Nicola will give a brief introduction on the methodology used; relative trends, key sectors and stock picking to building market views. She will give her current views on a wide range of charts, covering global markets and stocks with a particular emphasis on European markets.

Clive’s main “brief” in writing his daily analysis is to KISS, and he has found that Candlestick patterns do this very well. They can be used in long and short term charts on any market, if there is an understanding of the psychology behind the myriad patterns. Clive will cover a few of the more common and important reversal patterns, (Hammers, Shooting Stars, Doji, Morning & Evening Stars and Engulfing Patterns), with examples, explaining their formation from a “psychological” point of view.

Making use of his knowledge of Behavioural Finance, and incorporating some references to neuroscience, Michael will discuss why some price patterns work, and why some don’t. He will not attempt to cover the full range of Reversal Patterns, but will try to draw universal lessons from a limited number of examples.