Among the various MTA endeavours, the annual review of Committee chairs and appointments is a mainstay. I want to thank many of those who have volunteered their time and welcome those who are now volunteering their time. To begin with, we thank Tim Snaveley for his efforts in Regions and introduce Steve Poser who is now going to head this committee. I think having Steve in this position, given his position on the Board, will help facilitate increased communication between the Board and the Regions. John Kosar has stepped into the chair as newsletter editor, on top of his VP duties, and his ongoing efforts towards the betterment of the MTA are much appreciated. John Bollinger is chairing our Awards committee while Barry Sine, on top of his Board commitments, is going to continue to Chair the seminars committee. There are still a few more chairs to shuffle and I

At the Denver MTA Chapter meeting on July 16th, Tom McClellan presented unique insights into the markets combined with practical applications of those insights. He left the audience with tools to forecast the health of the economy, and the ability to profit from the big picture.

Economists can learn a great deal from technical analysts. Traders don’t get to trade very long if they don’t test their hypothesis because they will suffer agonizing real world loss of trading capital if they’re wrong. Economists don’t usually have enough data to test their hypothesis, and when proven wrong can simply modify their theories. Identifying practical applications of economic theory can benefit both academics seeking to explain behaviors and traders who can enjoy more immediate rewards through increased equity in their trading accounts.

Tom began his presentation by demonstrating the reliability of the 40-year cycle in stock markets, real estate bubbles, gold rushes and economic

Hello, I am the newest member to this wonderful MTA staff, and I will be the accounting manager. Over the years, I have been employed in the financial services industry in areas ranging from limited partnerships, due diligence, budgets and analysis with Prudential-Bache (yes Bache!) to Merrill Lynch. I was most recently employed by a HBA manufacturer for 8 years as an assistant to the controller. I have an MBA in Finance with a BS in Marketing. I have been teaching English as a Second Language and Math to adults in a county vocational adult high school. I am a jack of all trades, master of none!

I look forward to working with all of you and feel very fortunate to be part of such an auspicious association. Thanks for having me! 

To those new to swing trading, this 3-part introduction contains a brief explanation of my approach to the markets. It is not intended to be a complete methodology. Rather, it’s a base upon which on upon which one can build.

Swing Trading Defined

Swing trading is simply short-term trading. Positions are held, on average, for 2 to 7 days. Under ideal conditions, positions can be held much longer, creating the occasional “home run”. My style of swing trading is momentum based. This means that I first seek to identify a trend and then look for a place to enter. Although I do have some transitional patterns (early trend), I do not attempt to pick tops or bottoms.

Trading Pullbacks

I believe “The Trend Is Your Friend” is the truest market adage. And, the best way to enter trends is on pullbacks. Therefore, momentum pullbacks and variations thereof are my favorite patterns. They consist of

The Accreditation Committee reports the following passing rates for the April 30th, 2005 exams:

CMT 1: 77%
CMT 2: 85%
CMT 3: 56%