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.

The TV and media team and IG are a slick lot with a busy production schedule. As well as producing text and video content, they coordinate news feeds for the platform and do their own analysis. From Monday to Friday there are 3 TV slots: at 07:30 London time (Pre-European open bulletin); 10:30 Charting the Markets; 16:00 Trading look ahead.

I’m really looking forward to taking some time off over the Christmas and New Year’s Eve weeks. I’ve cut these out of my working diary for many years now, mainly because markets are dead – ergo technical analysis pointless – and it suits my employers/editors/powers that be. All well and good, but as a media luvvie I’m expected to file copy to cover these dates so I’ve been working double time this month.

IG TV host Jeremy Naylor this week invited Fellow of the Society of Technical Analysts, Nicole Elliott, onto IG’s regular slot looking at the week’s markets from a chartist’s perspective. Both agree that Brexit is dominating the headlines, Britain’s Supreme […]

Tim Parker MSTA is a veteran in the field of technical analysis and this was evident in his talk. Tim started the session by asking who in the room was optimistic about the state of the financial markets. Around 30% […]

IG TV host Jeremy Naylor this week invited in one of their clients, Adrian Rye, an independent technical analyst. Trained as a commercial financial analyst, he comes across well: honest, believable and clear. Better and better: his charts are superb. […]

One of the problems of having my email address plastered all over the place, is that I get a lot of unsolicited mail. There is an upside though, as sometimes I get very nice letters from people I don’t know. […]

Just the man for the moment. Rather than throw his hands up and shout things like ‘unprecedented, uncharted and unfair’ as so many in the media do when confronted by the unusual, veteran Zak Mir of ZaksTradersCafe chose to cover […]