I mentioned two key people last month who were instrumental in our recent success with the NYSE and NASD. This month, I want to shine the spotlight on a third, a gentlemen without whom, like John Kirby , like Ralph Acampora, we simply would not have been successful. This gentleman is David Krell. As some of you may be aware, David is a Past President of the MTA and also an MTA member. He is the President of an SRO himself and even though these recent CMT-friendly and MTA-boosting decisions did not affect his business directly, he nonetheless dedicated a lot of time, effort and patience with our efforts. He was, in effect, the Master of Ceremonies of the entire process and production. He advised and councelled, he guided the MTA through and around the rocks and potential potholes of the process. Like I mentioned last month, if you think that

Editor’s Note: This article is best read in the full-color PDF edition of Technically Speaking, available on the MTA web site. The P&F charts included in this article are in color. They are reproduced here in blackand-white, but readers familiar with basic P&F techniques will have no trouble understanding the shading. Point & Figure Charting provides an excellent mechanism for pinpointing precise buy/sell levels, as this charting method is solely concerned with plotting price movements in columns occupied by “X’s” and “O’s” to denote buying and selling demand, respectively. However, the shortcoming of this charting method is its total disregard for the importance that time and volume play in the formation of a stock’s pattern. As most market technicians acknowledge, volume often precedes price. To this end, I have devised a way of incorporating volume and time into the Point & Figure method of charting as describe in more depth below. To

This indicator was developed by Arthur Merrill, CMT, who passed away in January at the age of 98. Arthur tracked this indicator publicly in his newsletter, Technical Trends, for many years. Below is the description of the ADDO, as written in May 1985 and originally published in that newsletter:  The most popular method of noting disparity of the A/D line with the Dow is to visually compare a cumulative curve of (A– D) with a curve of the Dow Industrials. This is difficult, since one is a price curve and one is a cumulation, which could start anywhere. We have developed a formula to solve this problem using regression. The resulting index can be interpreted easily: When it is positive, the Dow is tending to pull ahead of A/D; when it is negative, the Dow is falling behind. Details Data Base Advances, Declines, unchanged, daily for the year preceding the current date. Dow Jones Industrials, weekly

The MTA is changing, and those changes are intended to lead to broader respect of technical analysis within the investment community. After less than six months of assessing the current state of the organization, the Board of Directors seated in July of last year held an intensive retreat at the MTA headquarters in Woodbridge to chart the way ahead. During a weekend of often intense debate, they found much right with the MTA. However, there is always room for improvement, and that meeting with a strong resolve to capture the talents and energy of the MTA membership to build on more than 30 years of tradition and strengths. Director Michael Kahn took a few moments to respond to some questions about what members and affiliates should expect to see in the near future. Q: The Board of Directors has added member communications to your responsibilities – can you describe what this includes? A:

The regions committee continues to work hard to develop its structure and programs to better facilitate the MTA’s mission – increasing the exchange of technical market analysis among dedicated professionals and educating the public as to the benefits of technical analysis. To this end, we have several initiatives under way. If you would like to help, please contact Tim Snavely at tim_snavely@rhco.com Probably the most exciting thing that we are doing at the Regions level is CHAMPIONING BETTER TECHNOLOGY for the organization as a whole! We continue to advocate a much better website, and the Regions Committee shared a proposal for improving our website with the MTA Board last December. Virtually all of our constituents use technology for capturing data, reviewing charts, and analyzing financial markets. The MTA has a strong technology backbone, but it needs a facelift on the front-end. A more web-centric MTA could enable us to better share