IKN

On reading Gary BiiWii’s latest edition of his subscription newsletter on Sunday (we do swapsies; he gets mine and I get his) I was mightily impressed by the early-letter discussion page on technical anlaysis, so I was very pleased that he decided to re-print it on his blog yesterday and urge you to go read it by clicking this link now. Yet again we’re reminded just how intelligent Gary is. After all, who would you prefer to listen to?

1) Somebody who has read a whole bunch of books on TA, doesn’t have much in the way of analytical nous and proclaims this-or-that MUST happen because the squiggly line says so because the dude that wrote the book he read told him so.

2) Somebody who thinks, learns, listens, has experience and can gauge risk/reward at any given moment, a person with a depth of synthesis in several areas of life (not just line-reading) that can bring a working brain to the subject and interpret what they see (with a strong track-record of calling them right, too). Somebody who’s balanced about all things, not just the market, remains humble and keeps their ego well in check. Most importantly, somebody who has a proven track record of making their subscribers good money by making good calls.

Number 1) is the TA-charty I rail against….the binary fool that will come a cropper and never, but never outperform the market…the vast majority of get-rich-quick Walter Mitty types that populate the mumbojumbo pseduoscience called Technical Analysis. Number 2) is Gary, a rare breed of thoughtful and smart player in TA that I truly respect and admire. All analysis is subjective, be it charty or fundy. The difference between a winner and a loser in the markets is the person that can interpret the raw information correctly and it matters not a jot whether that raw info comes in the form of a chart or a balance sheet or anything else.

I’ll finish this little tribute by leaving the last word to Gary and an excerpt from his post. Go read it all (and get smarter on the market by subscribing to his weekly letter..that’s one investment you won’t regret making). Here’s Gary:

“….so I will conclude with a simple thought; TA should be an extension of the individual and said individual’s experience in the financial markets. There is no one TA method that is the Holy Grail. If there were, the markets would not be filled with so many wise guys getting it wrong as often as right. Make it work for you or take it with a huge grain of salt.”