I can’t say that I’m a proper chartist, but I did start out in this industry as a quant/technical analyst crunching numbers and staring at squiggly lines. And while I can’t say I use it often today I still like to stare at squiggly lines. So I came across this interview with Ralph Acampora, who is a well known technical analyst in the US, and while the interview is predominantly based on the US markets, there are quite a few interesting points made, see below for an excerpt  and links to the interview.

“You want to explain the need for technical analysis along with fundamental analysis?” In the middle of the circle he writes out the letters GM, General Motors, and split the circle in half. On the top part of the circle he said, “General Motors is a company”, and he starts to write in that part of the circle: the P/E multiple, management, product, competition….”these are all the things that represent General Motors”. He said most people think it’s all they have to know. “But there’s a part two to General Motors”, and in the bottom half of the circle he wrote the word “Stock”. Stock of GM is the price, the volume, psychology, and time. You put them all together and you have fusion analysis. I think that’s the best way to explain it to people. You need both, one is not more important than the other. I tell people that for the P/E multiple – half the formula is technical, the P. Price is a fact, earnings are an estimate. You restate the earnings. You never restate a chart.

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 I have to add to your question. Now that we’re at all time highs, the next question is how many times does the market discount negative news? And the answer to that is ONE.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3