Interview  |  SEP 2006

Interview: Thomas Bulkowski by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

Stocks & Commodities V. 24:9 (46-54): Interview: Thomas Bulkowski by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan Trader and chart-pattern expert Thomas N. Bulkowski, former hardware and software engineer and current Contributing Writer for Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES (and best-selling author of the classic Encyclopedia Of Chart Patterns as well as Trading Classic Chart Patterns and Getting Started In Chart Patterns), realized the potential of the stock market when he opened a brokerage account to deposit the stock certificates he received from his employer’s stock purchase plan. On 27 trades, he at least doubled his money and made over 1,000% on six of his stock picks (one resulted in a 4,300% gain). It’s safe to say that he’s a successful investor. He has had 25 years of experience trading stocks, and with his trading savvy, he was able to retire from his job at the age of 36, thus fulfilling the dream of trading for a living. Best of all, with his trading methods, he doesn’t have to sit in front of his computer screen all day! Find out how he does it. S&C Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan interviewed Bulkowski via email on July 10, 2006. Q: You’ve done as much work as can be done on chart patterns. How did you start recognizing and realizing the importance of chart formations? A: I couldn’t find much information on chart patterns until I discovered STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. I started out wondering how often patterns worked and how often they failed, but sources I checked said patterns worked “most of the time.” What does that mean? I decided to find out, and that’s how my first book, Encyclopedia Of Chart Patterns, came about. Now, pattern traders can own a book that says “head & shoulders bottoms fail 3% of the time in a bull market and price throws back 51% of the time in a bear market.” Compared to other chart patterns, performance statistics like that give you an edge, and an edge is all you need to beat the other guy in the markets.

by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan