The Heretics of Finance: Conversations with Leading Practitioners of Technical Analysis

Chapter 4. Paul F. Desmond

People tend to get too specific about theories and say that it doesn't matter what the market is doing, this is what the market is going to do. That's really dangerous. They're saying that their theory is right, and the market is wrong. The market is always right.

Paul F. Desmond is president of Lowry Research Corporation, the oldest technical investment advisory firm in the nation. Lowry is particularly unique in the advisory field in that its analysis, which is based solely on the law of supply and demand, has been conducted in exactly the same manner since the 1930s. About 85 percent of the Lowry subscribers are professional investors, and almost 20 percent of them have subscribed for twenty-five years or more. Desmond joined Lowry in 1964 as director of research and advanced to the presidency in 1972. He is past president of the Market Technicians Association and was the recipient of the Charles H. Dow Award in 2002, sponsored by Dow Jones and Barron's.

What led to your interest in technical analysis?

I got interested in technical analysis before I knew what technical analysis was. My father taught me how to read point and figure charts and how to plot them. We kept five hundred point and figure charts every day but I wasn't really aware of the distinction between technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Then, in 1964, I was doing some research in ...