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 […]

Since my last blog post regarding Fibonacci Extensions for profit targets, I have received some great feedback, so I would like to say thank you to everyone who took the time to read it. In this post I will be […]

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 […]

First of all I would like to say I hope I can do the blog justice in Nicole Elliott’s absence as I have immensely enjoyed her posts so far, secondly I wanted to post something in this blog that I […]

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 […]

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 […]