November 1997
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As Editor of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, as you might be able to guess, I receive lots of E-mail, too much to answer it all, but I do read it all. As many of you might imagine, the letters of comment I get, both virtual and otherwise, range from glowing comments and inquiries about past articles all the way to criticism. While the praise is nice -- and without it, we wouldn't know whether what we're doing is up your alley at all -- I pay particular attention to complaints. The most common criticism we get is that the magazine is too technical.
The fact is, some subjects are complicated, and an individual just starting to study technical analysis shouldn't expect to move in one step from learning what a moving average is to developing a neural network model. Therefore, each month, our goal is to provide a range of subject matter that addresses the needs of novices as well as those of veteran traders. Toward that end, this month we offer an article by S&C Technical Editor John Sweeney discussing the basics of using moving averages as well as an article by yours truly on using Fibonacci retracements. These two articles are part of a collection of articles that we are doing in-house to provide the editorial balance that meets the needs of our newer, less-experienced readers.
Each month, we also have an interview with a professional in the industry to provide insight into today's markets. The S&C interview this month is with Bernie Schaeffer of Investment Research Institute. His specialty is in the area of options trading as well as sentiment. He offers some interesting insights on combining technical methods with sentiment indicators, and I think the interview will be worth your while.
And keeping with our theme of editorial balance, we have another article from Dennis Meyers. In "The T-bond futures & stock market breadth system," he details more of his work in the area of intermarket relationships as well as the internal dynamics of the stock market.
Meyers' article brings up another point. You might be interested in trading currencies, and you happen to see an article such as this one and elect to skip over it because it focuses on the S&P 500 and not what you're interested in right now. If this describes you, keep in mind that the article does walk you through the design of a system, and if you are building your own model, the steps that Meyers takes in the development of a system could work as a template for your own work. I mention this because I receive E-mail asking if we have published articles on system development issues, issues that are covered in an article such as those that Meyers writes, but you might not have read it because his market of choice is not yours at the moment. So I'd recommend keeping that in mind as you glance through the table of contents, choosing what to read and what to skip over.
In closing, technical analysis is a wide-ranging subject, and the challenge is for you to discover what works best for you. To help you do that, it is our goal to offer you a variety of information that enables you to use all the benefits that technical-based approaches have to offer, whether you're new to technical analysis or an old hand at it.
Trade well!
