Please tell us what you do professionally.
Presently, I am Chief Technical Analyst at Clearview Trading Advisors where I publish a market letter and interim reports.
The luck I’ve had in attracting a large crossover audience for my technical analysis work revolves around making it less “technical,” injecting high energy, the entertainment factor, and motivation/history, and tying it to risk management. I also discuss and present about constructing a psychological investing profile.
I also have student curriculums, and believe that the rules of investing can be used as a roadmap for life.
How did you get there?
My investment spark was kindled back in 1969, when my dad would bring me to the local Shearson-Hammill branch office around the time I had to do a stock market project for my sixth-grade math class. The quote machine at the time was a Bunker Ramo, on which you could get one quote at a time and there would be a line of eager participants. The stories I can relate from my years peddling up to various firms after buying a three-speed bicycle with my first profit – from Mattel Toy – seem endless. I sat in the “visitors galleries” learning everything I could from the Great Depression to the options market. Everyone was more than kind with their time.
I’ve been a technical analyst since getting my “big break” at E.F Hutton & Company with the legendary Newton Zinder in 1982, who took over from Joe Granville. Prior to that I wrote commentary and did technical comments at Indicator Digest for their Technical Stock Reports publication. At one time Indicator Digest was one of the best-known investment advisory services. Stan Weinstein, owner of and writer for a highly popular technical market letter at the time, The Professional Tape Reader, told me that if I couldn’t hit a home run to try for a single, so even though I’d have to write some fundamental commentary at Indicator I was able to participate on the technical side as well.
It took me tons of non-stop calls after I left there to pursue a full-time technical research position, and I didn’t land the E.F. Hutton job until I was 26 and I was calling my long list of names for a second, or even a third time. Talk about timing! Hutton had just let someone go and there was an opening. Never stop trying!
Who was an early mentor in your career?
Newton Zinder is as fine an individual and talent as there is, and he penned the most comprehensive daily market letter I’ve ever seen. To have him as a mentor was sensational.
What book/author was most influential in helping you understand TA?
As far as books (aside from mine, LOL) there’s none finer in my view than Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, written in 1923. I also picked up copies of William Jiler’s How Charts Can Help You in the Stock Market and Michael Zahorchak’s The Art of Low-Risk Investing. Folks like John Murphy, whom I’ve known for 40 years, have contributed mightily, but the list is so long I hesitate to start listing them as know I’ll omit some.
What do you like to do when you are not looking at markets?
Since COVID, I specialize in regularly losing to my youngest son at Trouble, various Monopoly game boards, Boggle, ping pong, basketball, and the list goes on. I passionately enjoy motivational speaking and teaching, and student initiatives from grade schools to graduate schools as it relates to investing and its many aspects.
Interestingly, the investment rules I discuss can also serve as a roadmap for helping kids achieve their goals. My speaking journey began in 1983, when I presented at an E.F Hutton training class in New York and the regional person came up to me and asked if I could do it in Chicago – so off I went.
What brought you to the CMT Association?
I wanted to be part of a technical analysis community and was able to earn my CMT in 1989 after joining the MTA in 1984. I would encourage others to do so. Truth be told, I need to become more involved.
What it the most useful benefit of membership for you?
The benefits of membership include the ability to identify, and interact with, technical folks from around the world. I also appreciate the job postings area.
In closing, I’d like to leave you with the words of my friend and mentor in the 1970s, Bill Orr, who always reminded me “that the stock market teaches you humility.” And finally, as my other friend and mentor, Newton Zinder said, “on Wall Street, to know what everyone else knows is to know nothing.”
Editor’s note – Jeff has a website is https://weissspeaks.com and his book Relationship Investing – Stock Market Therapy for Your Money, was named 2018s “Best Investment Book of the Year” by the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
