So far this summer markets have had a fairly torrid time, some stock indices setting new all-time highs in July, then peaking without warning and dropping by fairly large amounts over the last three or four weeks. Overlaid on this […]

Early this month the London-based Financial Times newspaper brought to my attention two important trends happening in the main stock markets of India and the USA. There are many reasons being put forward for the surge in volume in specialist […]

Ms Darbar has many talents. A trader since 2007, co-founder of Rfactory in 2017, a performance coach, certified hypnotherapist, plus two law degrees under her belt, to boot. Despite this she admits she’s ‘’spent an inordinate time on psychology’’. The […]

I’m not a proper football fan, but as scores and rankings come part and parcel with all news these days, I noticed that matches seemed to be managing a lot more goals than they used to. My attention was drawn […]

Rajan Dhall MSTA, one of the three founding members of DND Capital (North and Dance the other two) gave a lovely presentation at an in-person monthly meeting for the STA Tuesday 14th May; well attended, with more than average young […]

Alex likes his titles and awards, as evidenced by the framed certificates on the bookshelf behind him. He is also a very professional speaker, describing himself as ‘a quasi-systematic, cross asset proprietary futures trader’, with especially nice slides prepared for […]

There are four levels of STA membership: Associate for those with an interest in technical analysis but who have no formal qualifications; Full Member for those who have passed the STA Diploma course and can use the letters MSTA after […]

For some obscure reason the media this week has been focusing on just how old is ‘old’. Apart from the vacuous response: you’re as old as you feel, others have been more succinct. Like, when you reach 90, or anyone […]

What a stellar conference! It’s incredible how it managed to surpass last year’s event. With so many outstanding speakers and a wealth of information shared, condensing it into a blog will be quite the challenge, but here’s my attempt. Stephen […]

An older City friend of mine recently encouraged me to watch this video; I only wish I’d seen the first part of it much earlier, as I had traded my way through most of the convolutions and revolutions he mentions […]

Exactly a week before the STA’s Technicals to Trading Systems Conference, where David is one of a great line-up of speakers, and a fortnight ahead of Commodities Trading Week (where the STA heads up a panel discussion) we had the […]

An obituary written by Martin Sandbu for the Weekend FT (30-31 March 2024) set me reminiscing – and wondering how things might have been. It took me back to autumn 1975 when I applied to study Social Psychology as an […]

Another in the series of STA podcasts conducted by Board Member Gerry Celaya, this time with Matthew Buxton, CEO and Head of Algorithmic Trading at London’s FTP Capital since November 2020. Matthew will be the final speaker of the one-day […]

Another in the series of STA podcasts conducted by Board Member Gerry Celaya, this time with Stephen Hoad, CEO of The Stop Hunter since 2015. Obviously conducted over telephonic/digital devices as Gerry lives in Aberdeenshire and Stephen in the delightfully […]

The title says ‘write’ but the suggestions and pointers in this article apply not only to print but also voice and video content. First and foremost: don’t assume that rising prices are ‘good’ and falling ones ‘bad’. We are not […]

At the end of last month the Books section of the Weekend FT carried a review by Andrew Hill, senior business writer at the FT, of two Harvard-linked writers pondering the viability of sensible risk-taking. These were not the more […]

The rather dry title of this month’s STA webinar presented by Andrew Pancholi who promised us a ‘’40 minute whistle-stop tour of 30 years of work’’. He lived up to his threat and I urge all and sundry to watch this fascinating presentation – regardless if one’s interested in technical analysis, cycles, or financial history.

Sometimes in today’s ‘’instant knowledge at the touch of a smartphone’’ world, it’s very easy to become overconfident. Or assume that everyone, and anyone, could know what they need with a quick Google search.

A little social media bird let me in on a surprise. For her interview on IG TV, hosted by Victoria Scholar, veteran technical analyst Patricia Elbaz arrived with a congratulatory card and cake. This is because Victoria had passed her STA Diploma Part I exam with ‘amazing results’. I’m sure all STA members will want to extend their best wishes to all other successful candidates.

Many markets this January have been a ‘Tale of Two Cities’ – or halves anyway. This has created a series of very interesting, and sometimes rare, single or two-candle patterns, reminding me of the song ‘Candle in the Wind’. Like the song’s lyrics, ‘’and it seems to me you lived your life, like a candle in the wind, never knowing who to cling to, when the rain set in’’. My gut instinct is to look carefully and special candles to see if they’ll give you a steer as to which way the wind is blowing.