STA Blog

The first week of September 2023 was the hottest ever for this time of year in Britain. The following week, on the 14th, was the STA’s party at the lovely National Liberal Club on the Embankment; I was worried we might all melt but luckily by then the weather had subsided considerably.

Rosie Fox & Chris Colley, ADM with STA Chair, Eddie Tofpik

Drinks in hand we gathered around Chairman Eddie Tofpik who delivered one of his typical short speeches. Looking very dapper in a beige summer suit, he commented on some of the more notable events of the year so far, including the very successful Technicals to Trading Systems conference, the international roll-out of the Technical Analysts’ Day, the 9th of September, then thanked the many people who had contributed to the running of the society. He also mentioned that David Watts, current STA systems and website specialist, had been invited to be a director of IFTA. When I asked David what he thought of this, in classic ironic manner he said: ‘’I am delightful. My title is, I think, special projects, and I want to improve IFTA. I’ve got international travel!’’

Then Axel Rudolph, head of education for the STA, handed out Diploma Certificates to the successful STA students of the many who had sat the Part 2 exam; lovely to see that so many young people were able to collect these in person and to be photographed doing so. Axel noted that together with chief examiner Luise Kliem, it had now been nearly 30 years since the Diploma course had been established and that today it was running live online throughout the calendar year.

Energy trader Charles Hartweg, one of the new MSTA fraternity, encouraged by colleagues decided to take the course as ‘’technical analysis is a very useful tool as so many in the market are looking at it’’. He missed in-person lessons but thought the teachers interesting because of their experience. He said the final exam was tough and that he was rushed, partly because English is not his mother tongue.

Rosie Fox, a farmer’s daughter and milling wheat trader at ADM Agriculture in Lincolnshire, was delighted with the course. ‘’The lectures and content were fab, though students’ questions sometimes deviated from the subject’’. As for the final exam, ‘’timing is key; practice beforehand – especially as to how to annotate the charts which are now on PowerPoint.’’

Aung Tun MSTA from Myanmar brought three delightful guests who interestingly described themselves as Burmese; the ladies told me they had enjoyed the event. Once again Tomas Novotny, compiler of shipping indices, had travelled from Prague to attend our party.

As you can see, a diverse crowd celebrating all things #TechnicalAnalysis.

Click on Gallery to see photos from the event.

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