Description
Financial markets, by their very nature, attract a wealth of high-caliberindividuals who are genuinely excited by their chosen profession. Their enthusiasm and their willingness to share their knowledge makes belonging to the community of traders, investors, and analysts a great privilege. It is my experience that an hour spent listening to their stories, or reading their insights, is often the equivalent to months of study in an academic environment.
Most of these individuals are successful because they recognize, in a way that academic analysis still does not, that asset price movements are not just random fluctuations driven by the rational behavior of independent traders. They recognize that human beings are, by nature, gregarious and communicative, and have an inner drive to belong to groups. Not surprisingly, therefore, group psychology provides a controlling influence over individual activity and transforms a large quantity of apparently unrelated decisions into a more certain outcome.
Importantly, this outcome reveals itself in the form of rhythmic, patterned, price movements that bear not only a natural relationship to one another but also are essentially predictable once they are understood. This is why the discipline of technical analysis—hearing the message of the market via price movements—is such an accurate tool for making profitable trading decisions.
Furthermore, since markets essentially attempt to anticipate movements in economic and social fundamentals, the accurate use of technical analysis actually implies an ability to predict those fundamentals. This is why technical analysis is such an important tool for making investment decisions.
Leigh Stevens comes from this community of enthusiastic and knowledgeable individuals. His depth of experience, acquired over very many years, has generated a deep understanding of, and commitment to, the discipline of technical analysis. Moreover, he is one of those rare individuals who have the ability to convey the essence of his ideas, not only in a wonderfully simple and straightforward way, but also charged with appropriate anecdotes and experiences. There are not many people around who can both walk their talk and talk their walk.
—Tony Plummer
Former Director of Hambros Bank Ltd and
of Hambros Fund Management PLC
Author of Forecasting Financial Markets