Recently the MTA hired Robert Johnson, Ph.D., CFA, CAIA, in a consulting capacity as Director, CMT Studies. This position was specifically created to enhance the professionalism of the CMT Program and Dr. Johnson seems tailor made to fill the new position. He brings the skills and experience to the position that will be needed to bring the CMT Program to the next level. His education-related experience includes working with psychometric experts to identify and apply the  best practices in testing and distance learning. His finance-related experience includes a Ph.D. in investments and professional certifications in the field. In a recent conversation, Bob explained that he has just started reading the required books and reviewing the test materials but his first impression is favorable. He noted that what is missing from the Program is appropriate pedagogy (a term defined below). Bob has years of experience in professional certification programs and understands that it

To most of us, price-action trading is closely related to technical analysis and stock charts. But to a subset of traders, it goes much further than the technical versus fundamental issue, it is about raw price. The rational is that a methodology that only uses price (avoiding indicators and optimization), is as fast as can be and effortlessly transferable to any market. Yet for me, watching price action is first and foremost about simplicity. This article is a brief look at two simple and short-term setups. These can be incorporated into existing systems or used on their own in strong markets. By using a simple candlestick chart and monitoring market conditions and price patterns, we can easily find high-probability trades. As these setups only trade with the trend, the first part of the article discusses how to determine market trend and strength, and the second part digs into each strategy. MARKET BEARINGS Unlike

How would you describe your job? As a full-time freelance trading, finance and global markets writer, my job has two major components. First, find major market related events and trends that have the potential to impact markets and trading results and two, find technicians, traders, authors, software developers and market professionals that have a view, product or service that will interest traders and active investors and then help that individual/ company get their message out to the market via the financial and trading media. What led you to look at futures markets instead of stocks or another tradable? I track all of the five asset classes – stocks, futures, bonds, currencies and real estate. Markets ebb and flow so it is useful to be able to move between asset classes. For example, since 2000 US indexes such as the S&P500 are basically flat but many commodities (gold and silver for example) are way

In reading this book, I was struck by a similarity between the work of Connors and Alvarez and the original work of Ben Graham and David Dodd in their classic book, Security Analysis. Graham and Dodd defined the concept of investment to be completely different from the concept of speculation. An investment, according to the founding fathers of fundamental analysis, is a financial operation that is based upon thorough analysis, a margin of safety and a reasonable expectation of a satisfactory return. A speculation is a financial operation that lacks those principles. Connors and Alvarez have shown that short term trading can be considered an investment strategy rather than a risky speculation. They do this by delivering a thorough analysis of the techniques, showing a margin of safety is possible with correct entries and risk management strategies and showing that the disciplined application of their ideas offers a reasonable expectation

On March 23rd Phil Roth and I had the pleasure of staging a half day lecture program on the campus of PaceUniversity, just blocks away from the heart of the financial district in downtown New York City. The response exceeded all expectations, both in numbers and in the level of enthusiasm of those who attended. The event was organized on campus by Bernardo Feitosa, an MTA student member, in conjunction with PratibhaRajbhandari, president of the Pace Graduate Student Finance Club. Representatives from six different student business clubs on campus were among the attendees. Typically, events of this nature at Pace are considered successful if they attract 30 to 40 students. Initially, we were very pleased to be on a pace for 50 to 60 attendees. However, the final 48 hours saw a surge in last minute responses that caused the presentation to be relocated to a larger room which accommodated 85. Just

The Market Technicians Association Educational Foundation (MTAEF) will hold an auction this May to raise funds for the mission of identifying and supporting educational programs in the field of technical analysis.The auction will run from May 1-11, and gives participants the opportunity to take a renowned technician to lunch. We are excited to have several new participants in the auction this year. This is a great chance to get access to some of the top market minds, and the format of taking the expert to lunch or a 45 minute phone call will enable bidders to participate regardless of geographic location. More details on the auction are coming soon. We wish you the best of luck in your bidding and thank you sincerely for supporting a great cause. The MTAEF Spring 2012 Auction Participants include: Rick Bensignor – New York, NY Marc Chaikin – Philadelphia, PA Jeff Cooper – Malibu, CA Tony Crescenzi – Orange County,