Technical analysis is becoming more widely used by analysts, portfolio managers and even central banks.   While it was not considered mainstream as recently as a decade ago, technical analysis is now taught on many college campuses and has even made its way into the curriculum of the CFA examinations.  But technical analysis approaches the market from a very different perspective than fundamental analysts – assuming that wisdom is inherent in the markets, not in financial statements.  Technical analysis is used in equity, debt, commodity and currency markets around the world and can be used alone or as a complement to fundamental analysis.

 

To introduce our members to the field and provide them with a half-day course designed to provide them with a working knowledge of technical analysis, the CFA Society of Washington DC is conducting a half day seminar entitled Technical Analysis – The Basics.  Our instructor, Barry M. Sine, CFA, CMT, is the co-author of the CFA exam readings on technical analysis and was the founder and first director of the CMT Institute for the Market Technicians Association.  He is a publishing technical analyst and a CNBC on air contributor.

 

The course will cover the basic theory and assumptions behind technical analysis, then move on to practical tools including chart construction, chart patterns, volume, moving averages and momentum oscillators.  It will include current technical examples of major financial markets including a discussion of Dow Theory and what it is signaling to investors presently.  Participants are invited to send suggestions of financial instruments they are interested in analyzing in advance, and the instructor will try to work as many of these into the curriculum.