The Visual Investor: How to Spot Market Trends, Second Edition

Preface

This may come as a surprise, but I don’t really think of myself as a writer. I think of myself as a market analyst who writes about things that I see on charts. Fortunately, I’ve achieved some success in both fields. My first book, Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets (New York Institute of Finance/Prentice Hall, 1986) was described by many as the bible of technical analysis and was translated into a half dozen languages. A second edition was published under the title Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets (Prentice Hall, 1999) and, as the newer title implies, broadened its coverage to include all financial markets. I authored Intermarket Technical Analysis (John Wiley & Sons, 1991) which was described as a landmark publication since it was the first book to emphasize linkages between financial markets and asset classes. A second edition of that book, Intermarket Analysis (John Wiley & Sons, 2004) was published 12 years later.

The first edition of The Visual Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 1996) was my favorite of the books written thus far—and still is. While my other two books were written primarily for market professionals, or investors with some degree of charting experience, The Visual Investor was for the general public with little or no charting experience. The genesis for the book came while I was the technical analyst for CNBC. I usually had three or four short segments on the air each day to discuss some aspect of the financial markets. And I used a lot ...