Thoughts from the Market Technicians Association Conference

I recently attended the Market Technicians Association's Annual Symposium in New York City.

It's always interesting for me to hang around with the leaders in our industry and to talk with other technical traders.

This picture is with Barry Ritholtz, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of RWM.

 

 

Barry did a great job on stage at the event. He also does a great job with his blog, The Big Picture.

Several people asked about the market sentiment expressed amongst the attendees. I think it's fair to say that most people were cautiously bullish. On one hand, that means that most people there recognize that the trend is up, and that the trend remains up until price proves otherwise.  On the other hand, most people were surprised that price has held up, this well, considering the political, economic, and social factors that can affect market prices.

On a different topic, algorithmic trading is still not mainstream. By that, I mean that currently neither algorithmic trading nor quantitative trading is part of the core practice or thought process of a group like this.

It reminds me of how most market participants considered technical analysis in the late 90s or early 2000's.

My sense is that these topics will grow in importance (to a group like the MTA) quickly as an increasing percentage of trades are based on this area of domain expertise and practice.