INTERVIEW
Plan Your Trade, Trade Your Plan
Arthur Hill, CMT, is the senior technical analyst for StockCharts.com and an independent trader. He was a member of the Society of Technical Analysts (London) and passed its diploma exam with distinction in 1998. He went on to teach the diploma modules on momentum and candlesticks. In 1997, Hill launched TDTrader.com, a website specializing in technical analysis and swing trading. It was acquired by StockCharts.com in 1999, where today Hill provides daily market analysis, produces companion videos, and develops the ChartSchool, with more than 100 in-depth articles. His approach to market analysis starts with broad market analysis, defines sector rotations, identifies industry groups on the move, and ends with stock selection for swing trades. His recent book, Define The Trend And Trade The Trend, shows how to determine trend direction and find low-risk entry points within that trend. Hill has contributed articles to Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities and to our online publications, Traders.com Advantage and Working Money. Hill is a member of the Market Technicians Association and holds the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation. He can be followed on Twitter (@ArthurHill) or reached through StockCharts.com.
Stocks & Commodities Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan spoke with Hill on March 11, 2013, via telephone.
Arthur, tell us about yourself and how you got interested in technical analysis.
After graduating from high school in 1980 in Houston, I got a summer job at an engineering firm. One of the engineers working there was trading using technical analysis. He subscribed to the Granville Market Letter. I started hanging out with him and started learning about the markets. I bought my first stock, an odd lot of Cities Service, while I was working at the engineering firm. During our lunch hour, we used to go to the brokerage house, Kelly Associates, and that is when I got hooked.
I left the engineering firm when I got a job in the financial industry. I worked at Oppenheimer & Co. as a cold-caller for the brokers. That put me in the middle of the action. I had access to a Quotron machine, I went to the morning conference calls, and I studied my daily graphs.
That was in the early 1980s and I was reading everything I could get my hands on. I started following Richard Russell, Stan Weinstein, and Marty Zweig. I started trading actively and unfortunately discovered options at that time.
You “unfortunately” discovered options?
The trend defines my trading bias. Then I dive into the sectors, then into the industry groups, and then into individual stocks.With options, you are either going to run your account up and then run it all the way down, or you’re going to run it all the way down. I got on a nice hot streak. This was during the bear market in 1981 and the first part of 1982. But I got caught with lots of puts in August 1982 and that’s when I lost a bunch.
It was a tough lesson, but it didn’t dent my fervor for technical analysis of the stock market. I was just a few years out of high school at the time and decided to go to university. I went to the University of Houston and got bitten by the Russian bug and finished with a major in Russian studies and political science. I went on a trip to Russia, and then got a job working in Moscow. That was a big detour.
I’ll say!
In 1996, I went to London to get my MBA and to get back into the financial world. There, I joined the Society of Technical Analysts in London, completed my MBA, and passed the Society of Technical Analysts exam with distinction to become a full member.
After my analysis was rekindled, I started trading again and launched TDTrader.com in 1997. I met Chip Anderson [president of StockCharts.com] on the Internet. He had something called Chip’s Charts back then.