Technically Speaking, September 2021

As it is for so many people, especially those who worked in downtown Manhattan and the Pentagon, this month holds special meaning as it marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. As the Association, then known as the Market Technicians Association (MTA), had its headquarters in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, we were deeply affected. First and foremost, we had our own people in the building when the events unfolded. Fortunately, everyone working in the office was able to escape to safety. But we did suffer a huge loss as one of our members perished in the Tower collapse, and so did our office, along with our library and a good deal of our written history.

In this month’s edition, we have an updated version of the experience of Shelley Lebeck, our long-time office manager, from first feeling the building shake to her escape uptown. We also are re-running a piece written by Barbara Gomperts, our marketing consultant and production coordinator, about how the Association was able to bounce back so quickly. And Ralph Acampora relates his thoughts; he was President of the Association at the time. The point of all this is to show how the Association was dealt a huge blow, but was able to overcome it and continue to serve our members. That is the power of a membership community who cares and gets involved. Here is but one example: the late Bill Doane, who I thank daily for saving every edition of Technically Speaking, drove down from Boston with boxes of books from his own personal library as a gift to kickstart the library rebuild. Also, as luck would have it, I had a stash of MTA photos at home with me as I was putting together our tradeshow marketing booth. At least we had some of our visual history to seed new memories.

There are, of course, other things happening in the Association as we continue to move forward. This month’s member interview is with Ryan Detrick, CMT, who you may have seen many times on TV and Twitter, as he spreads the word on technical analysis. We’ve got news about the upcoming Asia Pacific Summit virtual event, as well as member news, information on the new Fill the Gap podcast episode and the announcement that our submission period is now open for the 2022 Charles H. Dow Award.

Be a part of this. Join a committee. Share your knowledge with the next generation of technicians. Even just attend the annual symposium. You will be glad you did.

This is the final edition of Technically Speaking in its current form. The Association is combining this newsletter with the Technical Insights newsletter, and I will be handing over the reins to Rashmi Shastry, CMT and the new team. Executive Director Alvin Kressler has more about this initiative below.

Michael Kahn, CMT

Editor

What's Inside...

President's Letter

Volunteerism is the lifeblood of the CMT Association – always has been. But serving doesn’t just benefit the Association. It...

Read More

2022 Charles H. Dow Award Submissions Now Open

Submissions for the 2022 Dow Award are now open, and will remain open until December 7.

In 1994 the CMT...

Read More

Virtual Asia Pacific Summit Taking Place October 2-3

The inaugural Asia Pacific Summit presented by CMT Association brings together the very top global and regional practitioners from both...

Read More

Shelley Lebeck's September 11th Experience

Editor’s note: These are MTA Administrative Manager Shelley Lebeck’s thoughts, most of which were written shortly after her escape from...

Read More

From Wall Street to Main Street (or How the MTA got to Woodbridge, NJ)

Many might wonder how the MTA was able to get back to work so soon after September 11 when all...

Read More

Tragedy and Triumph: Ralph Acampora's Story

I was the President of the then-Market Technicians Association (MTA) and the Director of the Technical Research Department at Prudential...

Read More

Member Interview with Ryan Detrick, CMT

Please tell us what you do professionally.

I am the Chief Market Strategist at LPL Financial. We are the largest...

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Technically Speaking Transitions to New Editorial Team

The CMT Association is excited to announce that Technically Speaking is entering a new chapter, welcoming Rashmi Shastry, CMT as...

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Fill the Gap Episode 9, Featuring Chris Verrone, CMT Now Streaming

Consistently ranked among the top macro analysts on Wall Street in the annual All-America Research Survey by Institutional Investor magazine,...

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Membership News

CMT

Standard registration for the CMT exams will close on October 4 and late registration will be open until November...

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President's Letter

Volunteerism is the lifeblood of the CMT Association – always has been. But serving doesn’t just benefit the Association. It also unlocks the ability for CMT charter holders to advance their careers.

For decades we did not employ any paid staff members, aside from Ms. Shelley Lebeck, who served as Office Manager. In 2005, we hired our first Executive Director and since then the CMT Association Staff has grown to eight individuals. Lucky for us, the staff today, led by Executive Director Alvin Kressler, are highly talented and dedicated people who have been with the Association for years, many of whom you may know personally.

So, who used to run the day-to-day operations of the Association? It was the Board of Directors, committee members, and local chapter chairs – all of whom were volunteers. No doubt, the success of the Association and our now highly-acclaimed CMT Program is due to the passion of hundreds of volunteers who contributed their time and efforts over the years.

Today we are still an Association of financial professionals that is largely driven by volunteers. Technicians have a unique passion for their trade that other professionals really don’t have. Networking with each other, sharing research and trade ideas, and promoting the use of Technical Analysis benefits each individual CMT Member, but also the whole Association.

One of the key value propositions of the CMT designation identified by the Board of Directors is that attaining the charter helps you to stand out from the crowd by demonstrating that you studied for and passed a rigorous, world-class exam that provides credentialed status among financial professionals. But this alone does not mean you will land a job in Finance!

Often, I’m asked whether achieving the CMT designation will “get me a job.” Getting involved as a volunteer in the CMT Association builds relationships with other CMT charterholders, which is key to promoting one’s career. The networking and educational benefits of partnering with other CMT volunteers opens doors for job seekers that they otherwise wouldn’t know to exist.

But, it’s not all the responsibility of the newly minted CMT charterholder. As a member of the CMT Association, you too can help by volunteering to sponsor a CMT candidate who is applying for membership. Also, you can volunteer to help run a local chapter meeting, which also allows new CMT Program candidates to be part of a network of other financial professionals. Speaking to student groups, other professional associations, or at CMT chapter meetings also helps broaden the network of new CMT charterholders and CMT Program candidates in the audience. By volunteering, we all contribute to the ability of CMT charterholders to advance their careers.

Speaking of volunteering, I wanted to conclude by noting that James Brodie CMT recently stepped down from the Board of Directors after a seven-year tenure. James was an amazing volunteer for the Association (and still is). He founded the Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines chapters of the CMT, served on the Curriculum and Test Committee where he advocated for more Behavioral Finance and algo trading material to be on the exam, and served on the Finance Committee. He also recruited fellow Board member Jamie Coutts, who currently chairs the APAC Committee. Thank you, James!

If you’re interested in volunteering, follow this link and let us know where and how you would like to help: Join a Volunteer Committee – CMT Association.

Contributor(s)

Brett Villaume

Brett Villaume is Past President of the CMT Association, having served on the Board of Directors from 2014 to 2023. Additionally, Brett is a Financial Advisor at Equitable Advisors, LLC (member FINRA/SIPC) based in San Francisco, California.  Brett previously served as Director...

2022 Charles H. Dow Award Submissions Now Open

Submissions for the 2022 Dow Award are now open, and will remain open until December 7.

In 1994 the CMT Association established the Charles H. Dow Award to highlight outstanding research in technical analysis. The Award has received over 160 submissions, and recognized 23 papers for their excellence. Of the more than two dozen authors/coauthors who have won, eight have gone on to publish books based on their submissions to the Charles H. Dow Award. Winners have presented at the CMT Association’s Annual Symposium, local chapter meetings, and participated in CMT Association podcasts and/or educational web-series. The Award carries a prize of $5,000; winners are often presented at the CMT Association’s Annual Symposium.

The competition is open to all practitioners and academics. Submissions will be judged based on their ability to enhance the understanding of market action, the concepts of technical analysis, and thorough research. Additional information on the Standards of Judgment are included within the Guidelines for Submissions.

While the winning paper will be published in the Journal of Technical Analysis, other research for publication in the Journal is accepted on a rolling basis year-round.

For more information on the Charles H. Dow Award, please contact DowAward@cmtassociation.org.

Contributor(s)

Emily E.A. Meyer

Emily Elizabeth-Anne Meyer is the Head of Marketing – Americas at FlexTrade. She served as the Director of Marketing for the CMT Association until 2021.

Virtual Asia Pacific Summit Taking Place October 2-3

The inaugural Asia Pacific Summit presented by CMT Association brings together the very top global and regional practitioners from both the buy and sellside communities. Over two knowledge-packed days, Summit attendees will enjoy an eclectic mix of unique perspectives on major themes, opportunities, and technical techniques across the entire investing ecosystem.

Hedge fund manager and publisher of several of the most important books on systematic investing, Andreas Clenow, will be joined by several of the most esteemed rules based discretionary analysts, including CLSA’s own Lawrence Balanco, CMT, Asia’s No.1 Rated Technical Strategist as well as prolific independent technical investor and educator, Francis Hunt. At its core, technical analysis is about data visualization and modelling.

During the Summit, you can expect to learn new insights on the intersection between market psychology and big data from an array of experts such as Katsunari Yamaguchi, PhD, CFA, CMA, Katsuhiko Okada, PhD, and Aman Oberoi, while hearing how the next generation of hedge fund managers are integrating brand new information such as on-chain data into a multi-disciplinary approach to investing in cryptocurrency markets.

Register here

  • Non-Member standard registration: $100
  • Members: FREE
  • CMT Candidates: FREE

Dates: Saturday, October 2, 2021 & Sunday, October 3, 2021

Times: Each day begins at 9:30 AM IST (GMT +5:30)

Speakers: Visit the registration page.

Contributor(s)

Jamie Coutts, CMT, CFTe

Jamie  Coutts, CMT, CFTe is a crypto market analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence and is responsible for creating crypto market structure, asset, sector and thematic analysis content for clients. He takes a multi-disciplinary approach to his analysis of this emergent asset class, combining...

Shelley Lebeck's September 11th Experience

Editor’s note: These are MTA Administrative Manager Shelley Lebeck’s thoughts, most of which were written shortly after her escape from the North Tower. As the organization was known as the Market Technicians Association (MTA) in 2001, we’ve kept the original name here.

The manufacturers of New York City postcards are going to have to start over. Today the landmark World Trade Center buildings collapsed into rubble: thousands of lives are going to change after today, mine included. My office at the Market Technicians Association (MTA) was in 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower) on the 44th floor and I was in the building when it all happened.

The day started as any other ordinary workday, and I recall that it was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and a perfect temperature. I took the bus to work, went inside the concourse to get the paper, picked up my coffee from the same place and from the same guy where I’ve gone for six years. The guy said, “See you tomorrow.” I went up to my office, opened the door, turned on the computers, had my coffee, and was answering e-mails.

I had been at work for almost an hour, and was on the phone with friend and colleague Barbara Gomperts just a few minutes before 9:00 am, when the building shook violently. It was as if some big thing pushed the building – which of course it did – and then it bounced back. It’s hard to say how long it shook, just seconds most likely but it was unbelievably scary. Our thoughts ran from explosion to earthquake to a small plane hitting the building, but we didn’t know the truth. I thought the building was going to collapse then, but amazingly it did not. To digress just a bit, one time while working there it was extremely windy and my office was in the middle of the floor. I could literally feel the building swaying very slowly, and heard a creaking sound as it moved back and forth, something like what I would expect on an old wooden sailing ship in the ocean. The buildings were made to withstand strong winds and even a 707 hitting it, so the shifting of the building that day actually bought some time.

My assistant Maria Wittek and I were stunned; we knew something bad had happened and that we should be getting out of there. We grabbed our purses, and she left right away, but I wanted to see what was going on. The association had a small office sublet from another larger association (NYSSA) and two people from that group, Mary and Wayne, were still there, although everyone else had left right away. There was smoke on the 44th floor caused from a cafeteria fire, so we waited until some of the smoke cleared in the hallway. Also, we were hoping to hear an announcement on the loudspeaker, but none came. Any other time, just a puff of smoke in the cafeteria would bring a loud announcement that everything was fine; no need to worry.

I walked down the hallways and saw debris was flying past the windows from the floors above, a couple of pictures had fallen and the glass was smashed, and the water in the toilet had spilled out onto the floor, but everything else seemed OK. I went back to my office, and in my practical nature, I grabbed a bottle of water, some Hershey’s kisses (in case we felt faint after going down the stairs). Also, since I didn’t know how long we’d be gone, I turned off the computers and the lights, and closed the door. I already had my purse over my shoulder from when it first happened and we knew we’d be leaving, just in case we had to leave quickly. In the purse was the association’s backup tape, which I carried out of the building and back to work every day because it made no sense to leave it in the office – just in case. How prescient that was! It contained the membership database, various Word and Excel files and possibly even QuickBooks information. Years later, the legend had become that I thought to grab the backup tape, or even better went back to get it, but it was in the most practical place it could be in my purse. And for all those who know me, or even those who don’t: yes, I went to the bathroom before I left, knowing it could be quite a while before I had a chance to go again (that’s when I saw the water from the toilet had sloshed out onto the floor). I also called my sister Elissa to tell her I was fine and we were leaving. I had spoken to my fiancé Tom MacMahon, who also worked with the MTA, earlier after the building stopped shaking. He told me then the building was burning but it just didn’t register.

We headed down the fire stairs, Mary, Wayne and me, and hundreds of other people. There had been several fire drills over the years and it never even occurred to us to take the elevators after our instructions to go down the stairway. It was quite orderly and calm, no panicked running but we kept up a good clip as we really didn’t know what was going on. We’d heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the building, but it wasn’t until we were halfway down that we heard the news that two planes had been hijacked by terrorists and had crashed into both World Trade Center towers. I thought I felt a rumble while we were walking down, but was not aware until much later that the second plane hit the other tower while we were in the stairwell. Still, none of this really registered. It was too surreal, and we were just concentrating on getting out of the building.

The walk down the stairs took around 45 minutes. The last couple of floors had water rushing through the stairwell. There were dozens of policemen, firemen, and other official personnel directing everyone out of the building, and it seemed that they had the situation under control. It is distressing to think of what happened to all the people who were trying to help us. They were urging us on, saying they knew we were tired but had to keep going and please move as quickly as we could. My memory has them in a big long line, handing us off from one to the next to keep us moving and encourage us. We came out onto the mezzanine level of 1 World Trade Center, and that’s when we were first really hit with the enormity of the situation. The plaza was covered with rubble, windows were broken and there were bodies within the rubble.

The officials sent us down to the main floor, also covered in water, with water dripping from all kinds of places. We went through the revolving doors into the concourse, which had water raining down from above us for several feet, plus water on the floor. My shoes were soaked at this point which made it more difficult to move quickly. After getting through the concourse, they headed us out past the PATH train escalators, around a corner, up another escalator, and out into the street. They were urging us to move faster now, and I thought that was plenty scary. Up until then, just concentrating on getting down the stairs and being inside kept us ‘in the dark’ so to speak, although there fortunately were lights in the stairwell. But this urgency was another dose of reality, after the rubble and bodies.

We walked over a couple of blocks, and met up with another one of our people, Rosalie, but we lost Wayne in the stream of people. I later learned that everyone in MTA and NYSSA offices got out OK. Mary, Rosalie and I kept walking north, as they kept urging people to keep moving, keep moving. We could only stop and look briefly to see the two fires, one in the middle of 2 WTC and one higher up in 1 WTC. At that point we figured it would be a big mess for quite a while, but were speculating on how long it would be before we got back in the building. Even then, we still don’t really know what happened.

Not too long after we were safely over by City Hall – normally about a 5-minute walk but was at least 10-15 minutes with the crowds – we looked back to see the top third of 2 WTC topple off. A huge cloud of dust and debris started working its way up the street so we moved even faster to get away from it. We kept walking, stopping a few blocks later to rest and get a soda at a deli. We had no idea that the whole building came down, and it must have been while we were inside this deli that 1 WTC collapsed as well. When we left, we could see nothing but smoke, and were far enough away that other buildings blocked our view, and we wouldn’t have been able to see the WTC buildings even if they were still standing.

It was so frustrating not to be able to let Elissa and Tom know that I was OK. All the pay phones had big lines and cell phones were not working; besides, I didn’t even have one at that time. My thought was just to get home. Fortunately I lived right in the city and had the option to walk, so I headed north with Rosalie and Mary. All the subways and trains were completely shut down. There were ambulances and police cars all over the place heading downtown to the scene, but no other vehicles. I left Mary and Rosalie at one point where Rosalie was going to try to get a bus to Queens and Mary was going to wait at the train station until they started running to New Jersey again.

Even as I headed east, there were people in line for every payphone so I kept trudging home. It’s a few miles, and being a bit out of shape for a long walk, I was really struggling at the end. I was also getting more anxious as more time went by, knowing that people were so very worried about what had happened. Near the corner of my apartment building, I tried one last time to call Tom but the call didn’t go through. I got upstairs to the apartment and Tom wasn’t there. He was supposed to go to Connecticut for a meeting so that’s where I thought he was. I figured he left before he knew what had happened. I tried to call my sister but the phones were dead. Unbelievable!! Here I am home safe and sound and I still couldn’t let them know!

I went next door to see if the neighbor’s phone was working, but it wasn’t. She had the news on TV and I sat there for a while and drank a glass of water while she filled me in on what had actually happened. Remember, I’ve been out of the building since after 9:00 a.m. and it’s almost noon by now, with no idea what had really happened. When she told me that both buildings had collapsed, I could not even begin to believe the possibility of that. Later I found out that the first plane hit 1 WTC at 8:48 a.m., another plane hit 2 WTC about 20 minutes later. 2 WTC collapsed at 10:00 a.m. and 1 WTC collapsed around 10:30 a.m., and during all that time the Pentagon was also hit and Flight 93 went down near Shanksville, PA.

I went back to my apartment to lie down and just relish the safety of my own little snug, quiet, safe place. I was trying to decide what to do, how to let my sister know I was OK, which would have involved walking another couple of miles, when amazingly the phone rang. That is one of the many mysteries of the day, how I was not able to call out but they got through. It was Tom, and he was waiting with Elissa at her apartment — he wanted to go wait with her for any news. The two of them were – understatement of the year – extremely glad to hear my voice.

Tom started home, and Elissa said she’d call everybody since I couldn’t do so and tell all of them I was alive and well. It seems I could receive calls, because shortly after that my brother Alan called from New Mexico, and my brother Tim from Illinois. Then I went out to buy milk and cat food, again being the practical person that I am. The event had still not even begun to soak in, except in little ways like thinking I had no office to go to the next day!! While I was gone, and all during the rest of the day, I had so many calls from people hoping I was OK. I have very warm feelings knowing there are so many people that care.

As I write this, many hours after the event, I’m having my first glass of wine and still standing (well, sitting). I’m weary and ready to sleep. Only as I watch the continuous news coverage do I slowly realize how very, very lucky I am to be alive.

Weeks later: The first few days afterward, I wandered around not sure what to do with myself. My legs hurt for several days from the stairs and walking home. But I must live in denial because I still can’t accept that the entire MTA office is gone, the World Trade Center is gone, and that so many people have died. The ripple effect on the entire country and world is astounding; every day there are new stories. My personal escape story seems so ordinary in a way, I was out and safe and on my way home, truly unaware of how bad the situation was. I did not witness the planes or the collapse or the jumpers or get covered with debris and dust. But yes, I still know how incredibly lucky I am to be here. The city was very strange for the first few days, on 9/12 it was locked down tight and no one could get in or out, which was eerie.

In terms of my personal ripple effect: so many calls, e-mails, letters both from MTA members/affiliates and from people that I haven’t spoken to in months or years. My sister-in-law sent my story to the Springfield, Illinois Journal-Register, the Illinois state capital’s newspaper and the largest city near where I grew up in Illinois. They wanted to print a story with a happy ending and written by someone who was there. From that story I was contacted by a high school classmate teaching third grade. She used my story as a positive message for the children who are so confused about the situation, and the children in her class all made me cards to wish me well. That was one of the most touching things I’ve experienced in my life. I spoke to her class when I visited Illinois a couple of months after 9/11.

The MTA already had some office space in Woodbridge, NJ, so we (Maria, Tom, and me) settled into the new space. We rebooted out there and started to rebuild the Association, working on the laborious process of trying to recreate records and set up an entire new office. My heart definitely wasn’t in it the same way, and work seems so much less important now, but is at least familiar in the midst of everything being different.

September 11, 2011 – ten years after 9/11/01

How in the world can ten years have gone by already, yet that day is as clear in my mind as if it were last week? Ask me what I was doing, say at 4 pm Saturday 2 weeks ago, and I wouldn’t even know for sure, but 10 years ago is etched in my brain. People ask if I think about it, and I’d say the answer is yes, although not constantly. There are certainly enough reminders around, even the digital or computer clock that blinks 9:11 speaks to me whereas it’s just a time to other people. Mostly I remember the day-to-day before 9/11, my office, the people, and the routines. This experience also made me more empathetic when seeing the aftermath of a hurricane, earthquake or tornado and hearing people speak about losing all that’s familiar to them.

September 11, 2016 – fifteen years after 9/11/01

Not much can be added to the story and the 10-year follow-up, except to say that Tom (now my husband) and I moved to Columbus, Ohio and I am working for Cardinal Health. It’s hard to believe that 15 years have gone by!

September 11, 2021 – twenty years after 9/11/01

Wow, 20 years! Although the last couple of years have seemed like twenty with all that went on, in all seriousness it is hard to believe it has been that long since 9/11. Tom and I are still alive and well in Columbus, Ohio; sister Elissa is still in NYC. A few months back, my job with Cardinal ended, so I am technically speaking (pun intended) retired and enjoying that very much – highly recommend it!

Epilogue

One of the most amazing things to me about that day is how in the span of 20 minutes between the first and second planes hitting, almost the entire world witnessed the second plane hitting. After the first plane hit, people would call someone up and tell them to watch the news, and they would call someone, etc. It seems to me that almost everyone I ever speak to about it saw the second plane hit while watching the news about the first plane, and everyone remembers very clearly where they were.

In terms of being a WTC survivor, that’s certainly a unique group to be part of, and a group you don’t hear too much about. I don’t think they could ever know for sure how many people actually were in the building and got out, but I think it might be around 20-25,000. I heard there were about 50,000 people who worked in both buildings, a lot were not even at work yet at that time, and so many stories about people who were late or didn’t go in that day. Just on my floor alone, there were two out of town, one running late and one not due to be in until later. As people keep telling me, it just wasn’t my time to go.

So much changed in my life since then, of course many other lives and the world did, too. I worked for a small association as the administrative person who took care of everything. After 9/11, with the office now in Woodbridge, NJ, I became a reverse commuter. I stayed on with the MTA for another almost four years, for a total of 17 years, then that ended in June 2005. I took some time off to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up, then Tom and I came out to Albuquerque to house sit for my brother and while we were here did a very spontaneous thing and bought a house. We’d been talking about getting out of New York, but if we hadn’t done it that way we’d most likely still be there. I worked at home with Tom helping with his business, but then the economy and life had other plans for us, so I went back out to the work world and ended up at Cardinal Health.

Contributor(s)

Shelley Lebeck

Shelley Lebeck was the administrative manager for the Market Technicians Association (now CMT Association) from July 1988 through June 2005. MTA had offices in the World Trade Center on the 44th floor from 1994 through 2001, thanks to New York Society of...

From Wall Street to Main Street (or How the MTA got to Woodbridge, NJ)

Many might wonder how the MTA was able to get back to work so soon after September 11 when all they had was totally destroyed. How did they get an address, phone, etc. so soon?

Well, there is a story behind all of this. No, it didn’t just happen on September 12, but the 74 Main Street location was already in place, furnished and was getting ready for an MTA committee summit the weekend of September 15-16 (which was cancelled) and a grand opening on Friday, September 28, plus a long-range planning meeting on Saturday, September 29 (which did take place).

In early 2001 the Foundation for the Study of Cycles had ceased operation and gave their library and archives to the MTA. What to do with the 500 boxes of their material? Put it in a storage facility on the west side of Manhattan? The Foundation specifically requested we not do that!

Then-MTA President, Phil Erlanger, found space in Woodbridge, New Jersey previously occupied by a failed dot-com. There was 3,600 square feet of space — mostly loft-like with lots of light and potential. There were many plans for the space — not to be the headquarters of the MTA — but to be a separate space to house the Cycles Foundation materials and to become a Resource Center for the MTA and a storage facility for their own archives.

But, thankfully, the MTA had a space to turn to when all was lost. Shelley had a backup tape with her on September 11 with the checkbook records, membership records, etc. Phil Erlanger (Past President and Technology Chair) bought all the hardware and software needed to restore all these records and rushed to NJ the weekend of the 14th-16th to set up the new computer system and got the MTA ready to start reconstruction on Monday, September 17. Thanks, Phil.

For the foreseeable future, the MTA has a home on Main Street, not in New York City. The New York monthly meetings will be held at Baruch College in Manhattan – a site which was offered before September 11.

There is a Herculean task in front of them, but finding office space is not one of them.

Maybe someday the MTA will return to New York City and maybe someday the MTA will again link up with the New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA). But, right now they are very thankful to be alive and well and working on Main Street.

Contributor(s)

Barbara I. Gomperts

Barbara Gomperts was the long-time production coordinator for Technically Speaking, among other marketing and publication-related functions, working out of Marblehead, MA.

Tragedy and Triumph: Ralph Acampora's Story

I was the President of the then-Market Technicians Association (MTA) and the Director of the Technical Research Department at Prudential Securities on September 11, 2001 and was on a business trip in Europe when the day’s tragic events unfolded. While on my flight from Milan, Italy to the Canary Islands, the pilot made an announcement over the PA system: “A plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City.” He didn’t elaborate on this news because he said that it was all the information that he had. Needless to say, this created a loud buzz among all of us passengers.

By the time I landed at Heathrow Airport, in London, for my final connecting flight home, reality hit me like a bomb! Oh my gosh, Shelley (Lebeck) and Maria (Wittek), the ladies who run the daily operation of the MTA, were in the building – did they get out of Tower One? I had many friends in the New York Institute of Finance in Tower Two – are they safe?  I was panicking and immediately ran for a phone. After waiting a bit, I finally got on a phone but was unable to talk with anyone in New York City because the phones there were apparently down. It was like a slow-motion movie. Strangers at this airport were hugging each other, crying and mumbling condolences. I vaguely remember walking over to the gate for my next flight and then joining an impromptu gathering of folks who started praying together.

I stayed at a hotel on the island of Tenerife and was still unable to talk with anyone in New York City. So, I called MTA co-founder John Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia. He filled me in about the MTA – he told me that Shelley and Maria got out of the building and are safe; he informed me that our mutual MTA friend, Phil Roth, also got out. But he was not sure about another technical analyst friend, Bill Meehan, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald – on the 104th floor of Tower One. Days later he informed me that, sadly, Bill didn’t make it. He was the one MTA member that we lost on 9/11.

The second day on this island I met with my clients for breakfast. Before they came to the hotel, I bought the local newspaper and saw a photo of lower Manhattan covered by a huge black cloud. It then hit me – what about my apartment? It is located three blocks from the World Trade Center! I had a top floor apartment, which was very vulnerable to the falling debris, but I still couldn’t call anyone in New York City. Then the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) ordered American airspace to be closed to all international flights, causing many hundreds of flights to be redirected. When this was announced I received a phone call from my cousin Tony who lives in Switzerland – he invited me to stay with him until the U.S. resumed international flights. It was there that I decided to hold a comprehensive meeting of the MTA members when I returned – we needed to re-think the future of our organization. Brooks and I called it “The MTA Summit.”

Fortunately, the previous MTA president, Phil Erlanger, had the foresight to rent a secondary MTA location at Woodbridge, New Jersey. It was initially intended to be a storage area for our expanding library, and other resources. But, with the loss of our primary office space, to say that this new location came in handy was an extreme understatement. It was there that we held the “Grand Reopening” cocktail party on Friday, September 28. The next day, we reconvened a summit meeting dedicated to education, membership and long-term planning.  We had a very large contingent of concerned MTA members that joined us and I asked them all to come with “Your Hit List” and “Your Wish List.” In other words, what should we eliminate and what should we create in order to establish “a new organization?”

Well, history was made:

  • Shelley insisted that we end the old way of creating our post-office mailed newsletters and create an online newsletter. This meant that we needed to install a T-1 communications line in Woodbridge. Honestly, I had no idea what a T-1 line was and how much it would cost. Our treasurer told me that we could afford it so the MTA finally went digital.
  • There were lots of discussions about ‘outsourcing’ the CMT examinations to professional examination providers – two months later, Bernadette Murphy, a past MTA president, convinced me to execute this important and very critical change – we hired The Chauncey Group International, which was later acquired by Prometric.
  • Many members felt that the MTA must re-invent itself by changing from a volunteer organization to one run by professionals. So, I got permission to hire an outside consultant, Ken Preston. He encouraged us to run the MTA ‘business-like,’ and to hire a professional Chief Executive Officer. Soon thereafter we hired our first CEO, John Kirby.

Contributor(s)

Ralph Acampora, CMT

Ralph Acampora, CMT is a pioneer in the development of market analytics. He has a global reputation as a market historian and a technical analyst, providing unique insights on market timing and related investment strategy issues to a wide audience within the...

Member Interview with Ryan Detrick, CMT

Please tell us what you do professionally.

I am the Chief Market Strategist at LPL Financial. We are the largest independent Broker/Dealer in the country, with more than 19,000 Advisors and more than $1 trillion in assets. My role is to help formulate and communicate our current investment and economic views. I write papers, blog, go on TV, tweet, film videos, and voice a podcast, among other ways we leverage getting our voice out there. We have a large research team that manages a lot of money and I play a big role in our tactical models and allocation committee, while focusing on current allocations and sector allocations.

I was always a research guy, but I’ve found that working with Advisors and their clients is extremely rewarding. To have someone thank you for getting them through a rough period and help them reach their long-term investment goals is so awesome!

How did you get there?

I got the bug in 1999 at Xavier University in Cincinnati, where I made a bunch of money just buying tech stocks. Then it all crashed. I was on a ton of margin and I got wiped out. But once I realized I could have made money on the way down, I was hooked.

I got my MBA at Miami University and soon after took a job at a small options research shop in Cincinnati. I grew tired of the world of newsletters and wanted to work with clients and form meaningful relationships. So, I moved on to an RIA in Cincinnati, but they were bought out and I was out of a job.

One of the best things I ever did for my career was starting to use Twitter in 2009. I was one of the first strategists leveraging social media and I made so many connections because of it. I joke my last few jobs are directly because of Twitter. Guys like Howard Lindzon and Phil Pearlman at StockTwits directly helped me learn how to fully embrace and leverage social media. Long story short, I met an LPL Advisor at a StockTwits event and he connected me with LPL Research. The rest as they say is history, as I’ve been with LPL for more than five years and enjoy every day.

Everyone can talk about earnings or valuations, but can you tell an interesting story along with it? I have to talk about the F word a lot in my role – fundamentals. But learning to layer in technicals, along with pure fundamentals, has opened a lot of doors. I’m one of the few market strategists that has a CMT behind my name and I think it has helped to differentiate me from the other talking heads out there.

Who was an early mentor in your career?

I really haven’t had many pure mentors along the way, but growing up in the markets when I did, it has been so easy to see and follow people with a quick Google search. You can see how people conduct themselves and treat others. I would watch people get in Twitter wars and I just said I didn’t want to do that. Watching old interviews with guys like Sam Stovall and John Murphy have taught me so much. Learning how to read charts from guys like Chris Kimble, Frank Cappelleri and JC Parets has exponentially helped my career. Brian Shannon has forgotten more about technical analysis than I’ll ever know, but I can watch all his old YouTube videos. I guess you could say I’ve tried to take little bits of knowledge from many traders and investors over the years.

What do you like to do when you are not looking at markets?

I have three kids and I try to always be involved with them. I coach my boys (ages 10 and 8) with all of their sports teams, but my job does require a good deal of travel so I’ve found being an assistant coach is the way to go. There is nothing in the world I enjoy more than watching my boys do their sports or my daughter (13) do her cheerleading.

My job requires a lot of talking and focus. There will be days that I’m talking to thousands of people for many hours. Everyone can use Zoom now, so the world has opened up and I’m doing all I can to talk with as many people as I can. But I’m the guy everyone is watching, so somedays I might come home and I’m just mentally drained. I have a hot tub and I like to sneak away and just soak in there all by myself. Just some me time to recharge. I love public speaking, but it really does drain me.

What brought you to the CMT Association?

I knew at a young age that I didn’t want to get a CFA. To me, I don’t care what a balance sheet says, I want to know about supply and demand. Is a stock or sector about to go up, or are there technical warning signs? The price will change way before it is on the balance sheet; thank goodness I realized this as early in my career as I did. I started with the CMT Association because I wanted my CMT designation. Fun stat: I was the 499th CMT and I have sponsored some really smart people over the years.

I’ve gone to many of the events and I always have such a blast at the Symposium in NYC. I met Michael Kahn in Miami at an event; possibly in 2003 or 2004. Networking and meeting new technicians are such joys for me. It wasn’t that long ago I was the young guy in the room, now I’m quickly becoming one of the older guys. I try my best to remember this and talk with anyone and everyone.

What it the most useful benefit of membership for you?

Having those three initials behind my name – CMT. It means that I look at markets a little differently than most, but as anyone reading this already knows, there is no other way to consistently make money investing. It is all about supply and demand, buyers and sellers. The CMT has helped me look at the world from a different angle than the sea of CFAs and has greatly helped me in my investment approach and discipline.

Contributor(s)

Ryan Detrick, CMT

Ryan Detrick, Senior Vice President, Chief Market Strategist, is a member of the LPL Financial Research tactical asset allocation committee, responsible for directly impacting the portfolio decision-making process, as well as a member of the market insights team, developing and articulating equity...

Technically Speaking Transitions to New Editorial Team

The CMT Association is excited to announce that Technically Speaking is entering a new chapter, welcoming Rashmi Shastry, CMT as Editor. Earlier this year, Rashmi spearheaded the Technical Insights newsletter initiative in our India community, which demonstrated the value of including free, timely technical analysis research in a monthly newsletter format. Although Technical Insights was a short-term initiative, its popularity and consistent quality led the Association to revisit the current format of Technically Speaking.

The strong structure that Michael Kahn, CMT developed as the editor of Technically Speaking for the past three years allows the new editorial team to maintain key sections like the Letter from the President, membership interviews, and stories about the historical evolution of the CMT Association. As we integrate the core concepts of Technical Insights, members can expect to also receive timely technical analysis articles addressing current market conditions and investment decision making methodology.

Starting in October, to accommodate this shift in content, Technically Speaking will publish on the 9th of the month with fresh monthly chart data in each issue. Additionally, several entry-level articles in each issue will be “unlocked,” allowing members to share research and analysis more freely with colleagues and friends.

By implementing these changes, the Association will diversify the level of technical analysis discourse presented in this monthly newsletter, as well as offer more accessible publication opportunities for our community. Rashmi is currently accepting articles from both member and non-member authors who wish to publish in Technically Speaking; please send a brief synopsis of the story you wish to tell, the stock or trend you wish to report on, or the technical tool you’d like to discuss to editor@cmtassociation.org to be considered.

The CMT Association would like to thank Michael Kahn, CMT for reprising his role as editor of Technically Speaking over the past three years, reviving the publication, and helping us re-establish its place in our members’ psyche as a place to go for information on the Association. Technically Speaking regularly tops our list of member engagement statistics. We are truly grateful for all Michael’s work and contributions through the years, and look forward to his future contributions looking back at CMT Association history and how it applies to the current environment.

Contributor(s)

Alvin Kressler

Alvin Kressler was the Executive Director & CEO of the CMT Association from 2015-2024. Alvin was instrumental in establishing a partnership between CMT Association and with CFA Institute. Alvin was previously Director of Research and Corporate Access at Bloomberg Tradebook.  Before joining...

Fill the Gap Episode 9, Featuring Chris Verrone, CMT Now Streaming

Consistently ranked among the top macro analysts on Wall Street in the annual All-America Research Survey by Institutional Investor magazine, Chris is known to most in this business as one of the hardest-working technical analysts on the street. Episode #9 of Fill the Gap focuses on the distillation process of Mr. Verrone, whose comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of securities markets seeks to highlight what is cogent and compelling.

The sheer magnitude of his charts is impressive, but the precision of the message is what makes Chris and his team’s work so invaluable to clients. Mr. Verrone is a partner of Strategas and is the head of the Firm’s Technical Strategy and Macro Research team. His regularly published research highlights actionable investment opportunities across the equity, commodity, foreign exchange, and fixed income markets. Whether you are a publishing analyst, a portfolio manager, or an enthusiast of markets, Chris’s insights will help you develop your own method for separating signal from noise. Learn why – despite all of the datasets, geopolitical information, and fundamental narratives available – price is the final arbiter of investment decisions.

To better understand the concepts covered and current market commentary, we recommend reviewing the supplemental resources accompanying this episode using this link: go.staging.cmtassociation.org/ftge9

Subscribe and listen to the podcast at https://cmtassociation.buzzsprout.com/

Tune in on your favorite listening service – each monthly episode will be released on the first Friday of the month and will be available on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever podcasts are found.

Contributor(s)

Tyler Wood, CMT

Tyler Wood serves as CEO and Executive Director of CMT Association with the aim of elevating investors’ mastery and skill in mitigating market risk and maximizing return in capital markets through a rigorous credentialing process, professional ethics, and continuous education. He is...

Membership News

CMT

Standard registration for the CMT exams will close on October 4 and late registration will be open until November 15. The December 2021 test administration will begin on December 2 and close on December 12.

If you need assistance with registering for the exam, please contact us at admin@cmtassocation.org and we will be happy to assist you.

Candidates are required to have a current and valid ID, bearing a signature and a recent photograph when taking the CMT exam, whether at a test center or through remote proctoring. Acceptable forms of identification include: valid passport, driver’s license, employee ID card and state ID card.

Please note, candidates taking the exam outside their country of citizenship must present a valid passport. The name on your valid form of ID must exactly match the name that you used to register for the exams.

The CMT Association would like to congratulate the following members who received their CMT Designation in August 2021.

  • Michael Benedict
  • Karol Bonati
  • Justin Collazo
  • Zachary Donnelly
  • Lucas Farmer
  • Johnathan Harrier
  • Mark Hutchinson
  • Adam Morgan
  • Raminder Rayar
  • John Salama
  • Jeff Shufelt
  • Farrukh M. Taufiq
  • Sven Willen

Contributor(s)

Marie Penza

Marie Penza serves as the Director of Member Services for the CMT Association.