|  DEC 1996

Author and Analyst John Murphy by Thom Hartle

Author and Analyst John Murpy by Thom Hartle John Murphy, a veteran of nearly 30 years in the equities and futures markets, is the technical analyst for CNBC television, publisher of the ""Futures Trends and Intermarket Analysis"" newsletter and author of such classics in the field as Technical Analysis of the Futures Market and Intermarket Technical Analysis, and his newest work, The Visual Investor, promises to be comparably memorable. Most recently, he's also cofounder of MurphyMorris Inc., a joint venture to develop multimedia software for investors interested in technical analysis. With all that he's seen and done, what are some of the technical approaches he's most impressed with? Stocks & Commodities asked him about the steps he takes to profiling which markets are offering opportunities and which are not, his favorite technical indicators, and more. Q: Where and when did you start your career as a market analyst? A: I started in 1968 as a very junior technical analyst for the CIT Financial Corp. My job was just to chart the stocks that they had in their portfolio. At meetings we reviewed the charts, and every now and then, I would very carefully offer a comment or an observation. Q: And they took your advice? A: Oh, they usually ignored it. At any rate, I spent the first couple of years learning everything I could about technical analysis. I read every book I could find, even though there weren’t a lot of books available at the time. I read the classics that were available, and I took one or two courses at the New York Institute of Finance (NYIF). Then in the early 1970s, the stock market really cooled off and went into a very bad period. I switched over, temporarily I thought, into commodities, which was red hot at the time.

by Thom Hartle