June 2007 Letters To The Editor

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The editors of S&C invite readers to submit their opinions and information on subjects relating to technical analysis and this magazine. This column is our means of communication with our readers. Is there something you would like to know more (or less) about? Tell us about it. Without a source of new ideas and subjects coming from our readers, this magazine would not exist.

Address your correspondence to: Editor, STOCKS & COMMODITIES, 4757 California Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98116-4499, or E-mail to editor@traders.com. All letters become the property of Technical Analysis, Inc. Letter-writers must include their full name and address for verification. Letters may be edited for length or clarity. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the magazine. -Editor


TECHNICAL ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Editor,

I am looking for trading software that can be used for the Indian stock market. Can you provide software that offers a free trial?

Gajapathy Bhaskaran
Andhra Pradesh, India

Many technical analysis software packages could work for you as long as it will accept the datafeed you need for the exchanges you are trading in. For a list of technical analysis software and some of the features of each, try browsing the Traders' Resource database of products and services at our website at https://technical.traders.com/Products/home.asp. You can use the search box there to look for certain criteria, such as free trials, within the software category.

--Editor



TRADING SYSTEMS AND FRACTALS

Editor,

I have some brief comments on one of the references listed in the "Suggested Reading" section at the end of Radha Panini's March 2007 article, "Trading Systems And Fractals."

As to the reference "Bachelier, Louis [1900]," I have these notes:

Bachelier's March 29, 1900, doctoral thesis was translated into English and published in 2006:Louis Bachelier's Theory Of Speculation: The Origins Of Modern Finance (hardcover) by Louis Bachelier (author), Paul A. Samuelson (foreword), Mark Davis (translator), and Alison Etheridge (translator), published by Princeton University Press (September 5, 2006).
Bachelier's thesis is a remarkable document on two counts. In mathematical terms, Bachelier's achievement was to introduce many of the concepts of what is now known as stochastic analysis. His purpose, however, was to give a theory for the valuation of financial options. He came up with a formula that is both correct on its own terms and surprisingly close to the Nobel Prize-winning solution to the option-pricing problem by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton in 1973.

It is an excellent reference, but not too important to the topic of your article. Perhaps a much more relevant reference would be H.E. Hurst's work on rescaled range (R/S) analysis, originally published as "Long-Term Storage Capacity Of Reservoirs," in Proc. American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. 76, no. 11, 1950, and later described in numerous books such as:

Stock Market Probability: Using Statistics To Predict And Optimize Investment Outcomes, revised edition by Joseph E. Murphy, April 1, 1994.


Ivan R. Dobes
Austin, TX



STOCHASTICS MADE SIMPLE

Editor,

I have a question for David Penn about his article, "Dial D For Divergences" (S&C, June 2006). At the end of the article, you list some suggested reading, including the Rick Ackerman book Stochastics Made Simple. However, I have not been able to locate this book. Can you offer any suggestions for finding it?

Carol Elkins

Technical Writer David Penn replies:
"Stochastics Made Simple" is actually an article that Rick Ackerman wrote some time ago, published on the EliteTrader.com website. You can find a link to that article here:
https://www.elitetrader.com/tr/index.cfm?s=15&t=68&action=print

Thanks for writing and for reading Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine.
 


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Originally published in the June 2007 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2007, Technical Analysis, Inc.