ChartWatchers

Passing the Torch

Chip Anderson

Chip Anderson

President, StockCharts.com

Hello Fellow ChartWatchers!

Well, after 18 years of writing these newsletters - and doing webinars and hosting conferences and writing educational articles - I am reliquishing those duties to others so that I can focus (re-focus?) on my real passion - making the technology behind StockCharts.com really great.

Last week's ChartCon event - which was amazing and went off with almost zero glitches - marked a milestone in my development as a writer/educator.  It feels like I've said most of what I needed to say and that continuing forward in that space would just involve lots of repetition.  In addition, there are many, many behind-the-scenes technical things here that haven't gotten the attention they deserve and it is pretty clear that the only way that's going to happen is for me to focus on those things full time.

So, from a practical perspective, I will be handing over the reins of this newsletter and its corresponding webinar to Grayson Roze.  Watch for great things from Grayson in the coming weeks.  We will also be re-packaging some of my better articles into a "greatest hits" series that can help you continue to get the most out of StockCharts.com.  Finally, I am challenging the other commentators here to up their game and include even more educational "how to's" and "step-by-step" help in their articles and webinars.

Pretty much everything I've said over the years boils down to a couple of key points:

  • Keep it simple - narrow your focus.  John Murphy uses 4 indicators, why do you need 37?
  • Focus on Momentum (MACD) and Relative Strength (SCTRs).  They are easy to understand, easy to use and work great.
  • Reject any kind of "get rich quick" approach.  Learning to trade successfully takes time and patience.
  • "Why" doesn't matter.  Focus on what the charts are saying.  Find trends and ride them until they weaken.  Forget about why.
  • Focus on "actionable information" and reject anything that leads to analysis paralysis.  Always ask yourself "Will this information cause me to make any changes?"

Hopefully you got a chance to see me expand on these ideas in my ChartCon talk.

Moving forward - John, Martin, Arthur, Tom, Greg #1, Greg #2, Julius, Erin, Bruce, Gatis, Grayson and all of our other commentators will give you lots of great articles to read for the foreseeable future.  And I'll be in the background, coding up a host of new tools and capabilities that will make StockCharts.com even better.

Take care,
- Chip

 

Chip Anderson
About the author: is the founder and president of StockCharts.com. He founded the company after working as a Windows developer and corporate consultant at Microsoft from 1987 to 1997. Since 1999, Chip has guided the growth and development of StockCharts.com into a trusted financial enterprise and highly-valued resource in the industry. In this blog, Chip shares his tips and tricks on how to maximize the tools and resources available at StockCharts.com, and provides updates about new features or additions to the site. Learn More