Interview  |  MAR 2005

Interview: Trading Diverences With Ashwani Gujral by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

Stocks & Commodities V. 23:3 (64-71): Interview: Trading Diverences With Ashwani Gujral by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan Ashwani Gujral first got acquainted with technical analysis when he was studying for his master’s degree in business administration in the US during the mid-1990s — and since then, there’s been no turning back. These days, Gujral is an India-based technical analyst, commentator, author, and trainer who follows both Indian and US markets; he’s also an active short-term trader and a money manager. He is a frequent contributor to various US trading magazines and makes regular weekly appearances on Indian business television channels. Not only that, he has an Internet presence, as he runs an index futures trading chatroom, as well as a print presence, since he has just published a book called How To Make Money Trading Derivatives: An Insider’s Guide. He can be found at www.ashwanigujral.com.STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan conducted the interview with Gujral via instant messaging on the Internet, starting on January 4, 2005. Q: How did you get started in technical analysis? A: I did my master’s in business administration (MBA) in the US in 1995, which was when I became fascinated by the money management business. The first real gurus I wanted to emulate were Warren Buffett, George Soros, and Peter Lynch. Q: Not a bad place to start! A: Being an engineer and having an MBA in finance certainly helped. As an engineer, I was trained to build frameworks and models to solve problems, and this helped in developing a quantitative and a logical approach to forecasting stock price movements. As an MBA, I was trained to understand business models, so that helped me understand the business of companies whose charts I picked for analysis. This is important because I advise investing in only fundamentally sound and pedigreed companies, even if it is done on the basis of charts. In addition, when I returned to India, I found that technical data was much more easily available than fundamental data. This was one of the many reasons I chose technical analysis as my methodology for analysis. Back in 1995, I had a hard time just finding annual reports, but of course that has changed. And that’s how my fascination with charting began, because that put me on a par with large investment banks with thousands of analysts making the same forecasts.

by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan