| Just 30 years ago the stock market was a shadow | | | | show the price action of the market. Once an |
| of what it is today. There were many fewer | | | | upward trend sets in people begin to buy, putting the |
| shareholders and the daily volume was a fraction of | | | | market higher attracting more buyers until the |
| what it is at present. No one thought you would | | | | greater fool application has run its course. |
| every be able to trade a billion or more shares in one | | | | In the years I have been trading I have seen many |
| day. Of course that was in the old days when they | | | | new technical indicators. When you think about it |
| had tickers and the word digital was something you | | | | almost all of them are based on the emotions of the |
| did with your fingers. | | | | mass of investors, even such simple indicators as |
| Now we have world markets. There seems to be a | | | | moving averages. As a continuing student of the |
| stock exchange in almost every country. Did you | | | | market I have studied and have used many of them. |
| know there is a stock exchange (of sorts) in | | | | I don't know any successful investor who does not |
| Baghdad? I have not heard if they are back in | | | | use them. |
| business now that the war is over. | | | | A broker or financial planner who does know |
| It is kind of amazing that with all these new traders | | | | understand and use these indicators is doomed to |
| and with all the varied stocks in every part of the | | | | failure. If anyone in the financial field every says they |
| globe that market mechanics would have changed. | | | | don't work you can be sure he is a loser because he |
| They have not. | | | | has not taken the time to learn his trade. He is worse |
| As a technical analyst and trader (I was an exchange | | | | than a carpenter who does not know how to use a |
| member and floor trader for 17 years) I still see the | | | | hammer and saw. |
| same trading patterns I saw 30 years ago. Wouldn't | | | | A good technician can go to any exchange in the |
| you think with this tremendous expansion that | | | | world, not know the language and still make money. |
| something would be different? It isn't. Why? | | | | Stock charts are like EKGs that doctors read to see |
| The reason is very simple. People don't change. The | | | | how your heart is doing. Some doctors can |
| basics of the market - fear and greed - still dominate. | | | | understand them and other have not learned. |
| Emotions have not differed in thousands of years. As | | | | The basic principles of trading have not changed over |
| far back as recorded history people have reacted in | | | | the years even though the market is many times |
| almost the same way. | | | | larger than it was because people have not changed. |
| The emotions of traders can be plotted and you can | | | | Whether you invest on your local exchange or |
| see it in the charts that are printed out each day to | | | | globally everything remains the same. |