Another May, another successful MTA conference in New York. It was a great experience to meet everyone and as always, interact on markets, ideas, personalities and whether the drum or the bass solo was better at Birdland that Saturday night. Many thanks to not only everyone who attended, but everyone behind the scenes. On that note, a tip of the cap to Barry Sine who did a lot of work organizing, leading and steering the conference this year. As the summer hits, we have the postelection additions and subtractions from the MTA Board. While I will say more about the new additions in forthcoming letters, I wanted to say a most sincere thanks to two gentlemen who have served their term on the Board: Phil Roth and Mike Epstein. I am sure these names are not new to anyone in the MTA or, dare I say it, many technicians globally. Both

I just attended my first MTA annual conference and want to urge other chapter members to make it a point to get to (at least) one of these events. It was truly a great experience. I had an unusually high travel schedule right before the conference and figured I’d just blend into the background to wind down my week. I had only met a couple of the attendees in person and was looking forward to putting “faces with names” for those I’ve been in contact with by e-mail. Absolutely everyone-and I mean everyone-was so welcoming and receptive to conversation. Any concerns of being an outsider were quickly alleviated. Additionally, the range of backgrounds for the attendees seemed extremely varied. Whether new to the association or established with a couple of widely used indicators under your belt, you had someone in which you could commiserate. It was great. Funny it’s a side note,

One of the worse tasks in assembling the monthly issues of Technically Speaking is an In Memoriam to an MTA member. This one is especially difficult as I knew and liked Frank. Never did I ever image that I would doing a tribute to him. I have asked a few of his friends to write something about him – and I also asked his wife to do the same. I never met Loes, but she is very brave to write such a personal tribute and send it to me (someone she never met) to publish in our newsletter.  Our condolences to her and their two children. – BG I am writing this with great sadness to inform you of the passing away of our good friend and colleague Frank Vlug from the Netherlands at age 44, way too young. Many of you have known him as a very professional analyst and a

“India has been waiting for the MTA,” I said to Mr. Jordan Kotick, President MTA when I recently met up with him in Mumbai. Why? Let me take the opportunity to explain India and its thorough involvement with Technical Analysis of Financial Markets by repeating another observation that I had to submit to him, “The third of the third wave on a supercycle scale for technical analysis is awaiting to be triggered in India.” Please notice the analogous pictures found in the monthly charts of the DOW and the BSE Sensex, not present in the hard-disks of technical analysts alone in Mumbai, but a favourite long term trend idea of arguably the biggest and most successful value investor in Mumbai today. From pencil-drawn charts preserved on acid-free paper that may be at least 75 years old used by some brokers in Mumbai to the real-time tick charts displayed by the electronic

It was a great honor being asked to present this year’s MTA Annual Award. As you know, this is the most prestigious award given each year by the Market Technicians Association. I first become aware of this year’s recipient in his role as the technical analysis for the Financial News Network many years ago. I was impressed with his daily discussions of the technical aspects of the market in front of the camera and often felt sorry for him having to do so on especially difficult market days. I once told him that I wouldn’t do his job for a million dollars. I actually wound up doing it later on CNBC for a lot less. My role as technical analyst for CNBC was actually a direct result of his work at FNN. CNBC felt that they needed a technical presence to compete with his FNN show Tech Talk. That started

Barry Sine, CFA, CMT, Co-Chair of the MTA seminar committee asked me to moderate a two-hour panel with four top TA software vendors as part of the MTA Education Seminar. The intention was to educate MTA members about what is available, how the various alternatives compare, any unique capabilities, and costs. Also, three vendors set up and staffed full live data displays so we could a test drive their software, get answers to questions, and check the market during the three days of the conference. Four vendors each took 15 to 20 minutes to talk about their unique benefits, then we opened it up for audience Q&A. The vendors arrived at a consensus in advance to keep the panel friendly and non-confrontational. I felt that as moderator I should be unbiased and only speak in order to keep the discussion moving or ask a question when it might help clarify some point.