Interview  |  JUL 2001

Interview: Bob Farrell by John Sweeney

Interview: Bob Farrell by John Sweeney Probably no one has seen the big picture of technical analysis’ growth and increasing legitimacy quite the way that Bob Farrell, a fixture at bellwether brokerage Merrill Lynch for nearly half a century, has. He seemed to be the ideal subject to summarize that growth and the winnowing out of what works and what doesn’t. Farrell is senior investment advisor of Merrill Lynch and one of Wall Street’s most highly respected stock market analysts. He’s seen it all and done most of it, too; he is a many-time First Teamer in the market timing category of Institutional Investor magazine’s All-America Research Team. As manager of market analysis, he pioneered the use of sentiment figures using Merrill Lynch internal data. In 1993, he was inducted into the Wall $treet Week Hall of Fame. Not only that, he is a founder of the Market Technicians Association and was its first president. His Weekly Market Commentary, published since 1970 by the firm, is followed by thousands of professional money managers all over the world. In his current role as senior investment advisor, he writes quarterly on longer-term theme changes in the market. Bob Farrell graduated from Manhattan College in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance and received a master’s degree in investment finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1955. These days, he spends most of his time in the sunny climes of Florida, where STOCKS & COMMODITIES caught up with him in late April 2001. Interim Editor John Sweeney conducted the interview via phone.

by John Sweeney