What is the study of technical analysis?

[tech/a]

Maybe Guppy followed/s Wyckoff

 

[motorway]

Maybe Wyckoff was clairvoyant.

Maybe that explains His trading expertise

The Holy Grail will be at bottom ourselves.
Wyckoff wasn't a Wyckoffian ... He was Wyckoff


On the S curve... Humans have reflection.. natural systems don't.

That explains the 1 2 3 elliot overlay.

Or the Wyckoff test and response or shakeouts.

Modis (S curve) talks about precursors The smooth curve gets overbought and oversold and shakes weak hands off with false moves..


Wyckoff defined much of what TA is and has become.

He was born in 1873 .. His Method (The 1930 Course) is still taught today
and has an avid following both by those who have learnt it and those who have it second hand in the many TA books written since..

Bar charts, Point and figure charts, Comparative Relative Strength
trend lines and channel techniques.. Wave charts and on and on..


Only The course itself contains the Method and Snake I think that the reason
It seems like a best kept secret.. Is because it did and does work..


No ones fault when they were born.. But We do stand on the shoulders of those Giants (titans) who went before and in many ways the oringinal formulations are the best and often have the most benefit for our own journey.. In My opinion anyway ....

motorway

A motorwayian

For example John Bollinger (Of the Bands)

Dead Horses?
May 18, 2001
By John Bollinger, CFA, CMT
Capital Growth Topics
"Are you riding a dead horse? Get off and get a live one." wrote Richard D. Wyckoff in 1932 for the magazine "Stock Market Technique".

For those of you not familiar with Mr. Wyckoff, he was a stock market technician who operated in the early part of the century trading, writing and teaching. He founded the Wyckoff Stock Market Institute*, which is still going strong today in Phoenix Arizona under the able tutelage of Craig Schroeder.

Mr. Wyckoff believed that the ebb and flow of supply and demand was portrayed on a price and volume chart for all to see. He was particularly interested in springs and up-thrusts, those false moves that occur just prior to the real events, which serve to shake out many investors at precisely the most inopportune moments. Indeed, Wyckoff knew more about the markets and technical analysis in the 1930s than all but the most learned technicians today.
Among his books are:

Fourteen Methods of Operating in the Stocks Market, 1909/24 (from whence the above quote comes)

Studies in Tape Reading, by Rollo Tape, 1910 (a pen name)

How I Trade & Invest in Stocks & Bonds, 1924

Wall Street Ventures & Adventures Through 40 Years, 1930

Stock Market Technique Number One, 1933

Stock Market Technique Number Two, 1934

And, of course, the massive course offered by SMI.

Fraser Books, www.fraserbooks.com has reprinted many of Wyckoff's works and "Ventures and Adventures" is available from Trader's Press, www.traderspress.com.

If you don't know Mr. Wyckoff, it might be time to meet him.

John Bollinger, CFA, CMT

18 May 2001

In the October 2002 S&C, five historic figures were named as "titans of technical analysis": Charles Henry Dow, R.N. (Ralph Nelson) Elliott, W.D. (William Delbert) Gann, Arthur A. Merrill, and Richard Wyckoff.

 

[tech/a]

I won't add anything on what's already been said, but I will ask an additional question.

Is T/A ever self fulfilling?

That is, if a chart in general looks like a buy in enough T/A's minds, will that be enough to force the price up?? A few will get on board early, making the next lot a little more confident, that pushes it up a bit more, as more and more T/A's jump on more and more decide their analysis was correct and join the crowd.... Similarly if a chart is saying sell, will that perpetuate a down trend that may be going against all fundamentals, or for that matter cause a reversal because the stock looks overbought (even though there may be a damn good reason for the price to be going up)??

I guess to be succinct, how much of the crowd is using T/A??!!

Tony.

A question often asked.
In the landscape of market analysis I would say that T/A runs a dismal third.

(1) Guessing,tips,gut hunches,brokers recommendations,reading papers,and Newsletters etc I would say for the public runs no 1---many call this analysis.

(2) Those seriously Fundamental.

(3) Those seriously technical.
BUT.
While there are many who wade through technical analysis VERY FEW actually know how to IMPLEMENT Technical analsysis into a Trading methodology. Often used in isolation with no thought of wether the analysis has merit in the longterm,or even if a group of trades will be profitable---T/A is often given a cursory glance and when it fails to be 100% accurate is seen as voodoo.

There is a VAST chasm between knowledge and application of that knowledge.
Technical analysis demonstrates this better than most!

 

[Wysiwyg]

I don't think anyone singularly answered this question correctly but as a collection it was partially answered. What we end up doing is take a section of technical analysis to become proficient at. Maybe because the subject is too broad to know all the intricacies of.

So technical analysis is a broad subject of which books and experience seem to be the main form of education. I don't know of any education course that covers the general field of T/A. This is disappointing.

Wikipedia has a good description of T/A and to study these, though not all listed attributes, is the study of technical analysis. To know the precise workings of the various indicators alone would be part of T/A study.

Technical analysts seek to identify price patterns and trends in financial markets and attempt to exploit those patterns. While technicians use various methods and tools, the study of price charts is primary.

Technicians especially search for archetypal patterns, such as the well-known head and shoulders or double top reversal patterns, study indicators such as moving averages, and look for forms such as lines of support, resistance, channels, and more obscure formations such as flags, pennants or balance days.

Technical analysts also extensively use indicators, which are typically mathematical transformations of price or volume. These indicators are used to help determine whether an asset is trending, and if it is, its price direction. Technicians also look for relationships between price, volume and, in the case of futures, open interest. Examples include the relative strength index, and MACD.

Technical analysis employs models and trading rules based on price and volume transformations, such as the relative strength index, moving averages, regressions, inter-market and intra-market price correlations, cycles or, classically, through recognition of chart patterns.

 

[Wysiwyg]

I don't know of any education course that covers the general field of T/A. This is disappointing.

Well there is A.T.A.A. which is the Australian Technical Analysts Association
but for training I believe Kaplan Professional are the only company that offer a professional training course at $1550.00 for a Single Subject as well as Masters and Diplomas for more.
Single Subject course for Technical Analysis ...

Technical Analysis (FIN231) in 2010

This subject introduces the key concepts and tools required to perform technical analysis. With a wealth of examples and hands on learning features, the subject facilitates the development of skills in the construction, interpretation and application of charts to a variety of markets.
Learning outcomes
At the completion of this subject students should be able to:

• Define and apply key concepts in technical analysis and understand how it complements other forms of analysis
• Apply basic common techniques in technical analysis
• Interpret and discuss price, volume and open interest charts
• Identify trends and turning points using various basic techniques
• Formulate and justify trading strategies based on technical analysis

* I think there is a way around the "assumed knowledge" requirement as highlighted below.

Pre-requisites
Students enrolling in a Masters level elective subject are assumed to have the pre-requisite knowledge in the four core subjects (FIN111, FIN112, FIN113 and FIN114). This requirement can be waived where students are studying one or more core subjects concurrently with an elective, or they are studying single subjects and are not enrolled for the Masters, Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate courses.

So there you go. Might be all that is required to assemble the T/A jigsaw puzzle anyone may have in mind.