Technical Analysis and Social Media
What a great week this was for Technical Analysis here in New York City. The Market Technicians Association annual symposium finished up last night with beers at Fraunces Tavern - the oldest building in New York. Very cool place. Legend has it that George Washington gave his farewell address to the officers of the Continental Army there in 1783. I wasn't around so I couldn't tell you. But the fact that the bar is old enough for this even to be possible is good enough for me.
On Thursday afternoon there was a panel discussion with the MTA Board of Directors called "Technical Analysis; Past, Present and Future". They did a great job talking about the current state of the organization and what some of the plans are for the future. I know that just since I've been there, the number of members has almost doubled and the annual symposium has gotten better with more attendees each year. More importantly, I keep meeting so many CFA Charterholders studying to get their CMT designations. This is interesting to see.
Anyway, a big topic of conversation at last year's event was, 'Where is the next generation of technicians going to come from'? I love hearing how some of the more old school guys started charting. There are some really interesting stories about how they used to plot point & figure for their fathers as kids or worked at a bakery where the owner used to trade using charts. There are all kinds of cool stories, and the old timers are more than willing to share. But what about the new kids on the block? Where are we going to find them?
Well I think they found us. This is the age of social media - it can't be denied. And currently there are 500-1000 annotated charts uploaded to Chart.ly on an average day. There is some excellent technical analysis being done and shared with the world using this platform. And it is really a very simple process:
Go to http://chart.ly/
You can set up an account with a unique user name or just connect using your Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn information. Up to you. Personally, I use my Twitter username and have LinkedIn and StockTwits all connected. Facebook doesn't do anything for me so I just ignore it. But feel free to impress your former kindergarten classmates with your take on the Head & shoulders pattern in the S&P500.
Then simply annotate your charts like you always do and save it to your hard drive. Look how simple this process really is:
So guys, do you want to know where the next generation of technicians is going to come from? It's the ones using the internet. Not the ones drawing lines with rulers on huge sheets of paper. That's not going to happen anymore. The young generation that understands computers and the internet is already sharing their charts and putting together some excellent analysis. This goes for college students and guys in their 60s. Doesn't matter. Social media welcomes all.
Some of my favorite follows are: @PeterLBrandt (Classical Chart Trader), @HarmonGreg (CMT & CFA Chartholder), @Alaidi (Currency Extraordinaire), and @1nvestor (P&F and more).
A lot of these guys have blogs as well so I advise you to check them out if you are interested in technical analysis. And if you want to start sharing your charts with the community, set up your StockTwits account and get going. If you have any questions about what to do or how to do it, feel free to reach out to me jc@allstarcharts.com or ping me on StockTwits or Twitter @allstarcharts.
Social Media and Technical Analysis have a beautiful relationship. The community continues to grow worldwide live and online. I can't wait to see where we are 5 years from now, in 10 years, 20 years.....