Subject: Society of Technical Analysts

From: "Martin Sewell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 21:43:50 +0100

Dear All

I'd be most grateful if you could forward this message to any UK academics
you know who may have an interest in Technical Analysis.  Many thanks.

I am working as an independent researcher on behalf of the Society of
Technical Analysts.  The STA is a non-profit organization. We want to
discover who is doing what in UK academia vis-à-vis Technical Analysis and
related disciplines in financial or commodity markets.

Although we are only interested in Technical Analysis being applied to
financial and commodity markets, we also wish to include more recent
techniques involving neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic,
nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory, game theory, market psychology, etc.  If
you require a fuller definition, I've listed the things that a technical
analyst is likely to believe at the end of this e-mail.

We're equally interested in those who have done any work that refutes
Technical Analysis.

For information about the STA in general, see:
http://www.sta-uk.org/

International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA) Web site:
http://www.ifta.org/

The STA as part of IFTA (The International Federation of Technical Analysts)
is trying to put together a global list of academics who are all working in
related fields.  Some of these people may call themselves economists,
statisticians or quants; some of them will operate under the guise of
'behavioural scientists'.  The bottom line as far as we are concerned is
that if they are studying marketplaces or prices and are using price history
or price patterns as inputs, then they are likely to be suitable candidates.
They will be interested in price, time and volume.  Some of these people we
expect to be critical of Technical Analysis, this is not meant to be a list
of supporters, only players.

If you feel that you've done any work in this area, I would be most grateful
if you could e-mail me some details.  Ultimately we may want to be able to
make contact in the future.

Thanking you in advance for any help.

Regards

Martin Sewell
Society of Technical Analysts

e-mail: [email-masked]

___________________________________________

In order to define technical analysis (which incorporates charting) more
clearly, I've listed below the things that technical analysts (or chartists)
are likely to believe:

They believe that the balance of supply and demand, or market action, is the
root of price setting.
They believe that "The Averages Discount Everything".  In other words that
all hopes, fears and knowledge, including reasonable expectation, is
discounted or incorporated in the current price.
As they believe that price is all that matters - they record and keep track
of it.
The best way to forecast future price movements is to analyze the patterns
that can be seen in past movements.
History repeats itself.
They are more interested in the fact that a price breaks its historical
support level than the reason for it.
They look for unusual volumes of trading and breakouts, rather than the
fundamental factors behind the market.
They say that a price reflects the consensus of everyone in the market.
They look at movement of the herd, and believe in its statistical
regularity.
They are only concerned with price, time and volume.
They refute all three forms of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH).
It is the alternative to fundamental analysis.