public0

Technically Speaking, April 2007

From the Editor’s Desk

In recent months, this newsletter has included articles about volunteering and highlighted the benefits you’ll see from being involved. Michael Kahn, Fred Meissner and Larry Berman have written about how much they enjoyed being involved in the MTA. These three talented individuals would have doubtlessly succeeded in this business even without the MTA. But, I certainly would not have been able to attain my career goals without the MTA.

A month after I joined the MTA, nearly ten years ago, Michael Kahn, then-editor of Technically Speaking, allowed me to prepare one page summaries of the New York MTA meetings. Each month, I forced myself to learn enough about the speaker’s area of expertise to write a concise review, making me a better technician. I would not have passed my CMT tests without this exposure to all aspects of technical analysis. Another benefit of this writing came when the newsletter arrived in my mailbox each month, and I analyzed each of Michael’s helpful edits. If you’re reading this, Michael, thanks for making me a better writer.

Eventually, I became your editor, and that has allowed me to call and email many of you to see if you can submit something. If I haven’t gotten to you yet, please feel free to send me your articles at any time.

I have also had the opportunity to serve on the Nominating Committee and the Journal Committee. Committee work requires a small amount of time and a great deal of interaction with fellow members. In other words, I’ve enjoyed talking to the best and brightest in the field and learned an incredible amount by listening to their decades of accumulated wisdom.

I firmly believe that experience is the best teacher. I have just found that sometimes it’s less expensive to learn from someone else’s experience. My involvement in the MTA has allowed me to learn from the experience of true giants in the field of technical analysis. I urge you to look at what you can do within our organization. The MTA will be stronger with your help, and you’ll grow as a technician through your work alongside fellow volunteers.

Sincerely,

Mike Carr, CMT

Editor, Technically Speaking

What's Inside...

From the Executive’s Desk

by Tom Silveri

At this point in the year, the MTA is gearing up for several Spring events: The test window for the Spring CMT Exam is April 26th to May 5th. Sign-ups for all levels have been brisk. Call the MTA as...

Read More

The True Nature of A Long-Term Trend

by W. Clay Allen, CFA

The stock of AKAM has exhibited a strong up trending move over the past year. The stock gained over 85% during that time. Some PhDs in math and statistics deny the existence of long-term trends in...

Read More

In Depth Part II: Ralph Acampora

by Molly Schilling & Ralph Acampora, CMT

This is Part II of an interview with Ralph Acampora at Knight Trading in Jersey City, New Jersey. This section of the interview will focus on historic detail relative to Technical Analysis and its...

Read More

Meet the MTA Staff

Tim Licitra is the Marketing Services Coordinator and has been working for the Market Technicians Association for about a year and a half now. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island in May...

Read More

How They Do It

by Matthew Caruso, CFA, CMT

This month, we feature an interview with legendary trader Larry Williams on how he views trading in the real world. MTA member Matt Caruso, CMT, recently had a chance to speak with Larry by...

Read More
From the Executive’s Desk

From the Executive’s Desk

At this point in the year, the MTA is gearing up for several Spring events: The test window for the Spring CMT Exam is April 26th to May 5th. Sign-ups for all levels have been brisk. Call the MTA as soon as possible to “lock-in” your registration and test date for the upcoming examination. By the time you receive this newsletter the CMT Level 3 registration will have closed, however the Level 1 and Level 2 registration period ends on April 20th. Don’t wait! If you have any questions or concerns in regards to the CMT Exam, feel free to contact Marie Penza at our MTA Office. For those of you that are already registered for an exam, best of luck. We are pleased to report that over 100 MTA Members and Affiliates have signed up for our CMT preparatory classes, CMT Institute (CMTi), at various levels. We are pleased with this

To view this content you must be an active member of the CMT Association.
Not a member? Join the CMT Association and unlock access to hundreds of hours of written and video technical analysis content, including the Journal of Technical Analysis and the Video Archives. Learn more about Membership here.

Upgrade Your Membership

Contributor(s)

Back to top
The True Nature of A Long-Term Trend

The True Nature of A Long-Term Trend

The stock of AKAM has exhibited a strong up trending move over the past year. The stock gained over 85% during that time. Some PhDs in math and statistics deny the existence of long-term trends in stock prices. Only a sophisticated statistician could develop a proof that the trend of AKAM could not exist. It is interesting to delve into the nature of this trend and examine it in more detail. The simple statistics that I use indicate that about 52% of the trading days were up and 48% of the trading days were down. This is very close to flipping a fair coin and the academic would say that this proves the randomness of the daily percent changes in price and that’s all there is to it! The histogram for AKAM in this example shows the frequency of the days with various percent price changes. The histogram shows the characteristic bell

To view this content you must be an active member of the CMT Association.
Not a member? Join the CMT Association and unlock access to hundreds of hours of written and video technical analysis content, including the Journal of Technical Analysis and the Video Archives. Learn more about Membership here.

Upgrade Your Membership

Contributor(s)

W. Clay Allen, CFA

Back to top
In Depth Part II: Ralph Acampora

In Depth Part II: Ralph Acampora

This is Part II of an interview with Ralph Acampora at Knight Trading in Jersey City, New Jersey. This section of the interview will focus on historic detail relative to Technical Analysis and its development, as well as the development of the MTA. Ralph and I have come back to his office after touring this stunning “virtual” stock exchange at Knight Trading. Ralph’s office is spacious and warm, and surprisingly low-tech – a large mahogany desk with pictures of family members, and a wall-to-wall bookshelf filled with books about TA history and theory. Light is pouring through a large bank of windows as we sit down at a big circular conference table to continue the interview. Molly Schilling [MS]: When you say that your CEO here at Knight Trading has “connected the dots” by his insight into the need for Technical Analysis based research reports to explain and elaborate electronic

To view this content you must be an active member of the CMT Association.
Not a member? Join the CMT Association and unlock access to hundreds of hours of written and video technical analysis content, including the Journal of Technical Analysis and the Video Archives. Learn more about Membership here.

Upgrade Your Membership

Contributor(s)

Molly Schilling - 2023

Molly Schilling

Ralph Acampora, CMT - 2023

Ralph Acampora, CMT

Back to top
Meet the MTA Staff

Meet the MTA Staff

Tim Licitra is the Marketing Services Coordinator and has been working for the Market Technicians Association for about a year and a half now. He graduated from the University of Rhode Island in May of ‘05 with a degree in Marketing. He is, without doubt, the external face of the MTA and probably the most recognizable member of staff. if you haven’t had a conversation with Tim yet, you surely will. Tim works closely on all of the MTA publications from a marketing and coordination perspective. He coordinates with outside advertisers and the Technically Speaking newsletter editor on this monthly publication. In addition, Tim works with the Journal Committee Chair on the coordination and the dessemination of the annual Journal of Technical Analysis to our members. He is also responsible for all external marketing of our brand and, as such, Tim places all advertising (currently in Stocks & Commodities, Bloomberg World Markets,

To view this content you must be an active member of the CMT Association.
Not a member? Join the CMT Association and unlock access to hundreds of hours of written and video technical analysis content, including the Journal of Technical Analysis and the Video Archives. Learn more about Membership here.

Upgrade Your Membership
Back to top
How They Do It

How They Do It

This month, we feature an interview with legendary trader Larry Williams on how he views trading in the real world. MTA member Matt Caruso, CMT, recently had a chance to speak with Larry by phone. Larry Williams has been trading futures and commodities for well over 40 years. He is among the most highly regarded and well known short term traders in the world. No other trader is as accomplished as Larry Williams. He has taught thousands to correctly trade the markets, won many trading championships, and has been the only futures trader in the world to repeatedly trade $1 million of his own money live at seminars around the globe. Larry began following the markets in 1962 after his interest was sparked by the Kennedy market crash, when President Kennedy forced a roll back in steel prices. The crash was front page news everywhere. People lost millions but Larry was more

To view this content you must be an active member of the CMT Association.
Not a member? Join the CMT Association and unlock access to hundreds of hours of written and video technical analysis content, including the Journal of Technical Analysis and the Video Archives. Learn more about Membership here.

Upgrade Your Membership

Contributor(s)

Matt Caruso

Matthew Caruso, CFA, CMT

Back to top

New Educational Content This Month

Back to top