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 […]

At November’s STA monthly meeting we were treated to a very interesting talk by motivational coach Steve Ward (do watch the video which is now on the STA website). But there was an added extra in store for me over […]

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 […]

On 18th February, on behalf of the Society of Technical Analysts, I presented the inaugural Finance Society lecture at Anglia Ruskin University’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School and showed the following chart. I argued that before making significant new highs […]

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, […]

Did you know that there are an awful lot of market professionals out there who are not technical analysts – yet they use charts all the time. As a technical analyst you might well believe that you have little to […]

According to Wikipedia: A fractal is a natural phenomenon or a mathematical set that exhibits a repeating pattern that displays at every scale. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern. An example of this is the Menger Sponge. […]

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 […]