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

Chapter 19. The Path to Success

	Sometimes too much formal education is a big hindrance, because education centers around models and the way things should work, but the markets aren't that way. The markets do things that the models don't predict.
	--L. Raschke

What kind of formal education is the best preparation for the profession of technical analysis?

ACAMPORA: You have to like the subject and the markets. You have to be analytical. You could be an English, history, or French major, and still be a great technical analyst. I don't think there is any one subject that has to be studied. To be an analyst, you have to be able to write. A trader doesn't need to write, so you're talking about two different animals. I don't think any particular formal background is necessary, but you have to take a technical analysis class like the one I teach. At the end of that class, you'll know whether you like the subject or not. And if you're already wound up, you'll study as hard as you can. But you have to be exposed to it first. A strong quantitative background is not necessary at all to be a good technician.

BIRINYI: Somebody said to me twenty to twenty-five years ago that 25 percent of money managers in the United States were art history majors. That's not the case anymore; they're all MB As now. But I think you have to be well rounded. History is my background, and I found that a lot of our work ...