ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Chi Squared by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Just how meaningful are statistics? Arthur Merrill explains how to find out. If records show that market behavior exhibited more rises than declines at a certain time in the past, could it have been by chance? Y
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Closing Arms by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. The Arms index has been verified, deified, and even modified, certainly within the pages of STOCKS & COMMODITIES. Now the index is examined again, this time by noted veteran technician Arthur Merrill, to find ou
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Closing Tick by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Buyers' market or sellers' market? Counting the upticks and downticks can give you a clue, Merrill says. Are buyers reaching for stock? Do they have to bid a price higher than the last price given (an uptick)? O
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Customer Option Activity by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. The Options Clearing Corporation issues a weekly report to subscribers that lists the totals of options bought and sold on all exchanges nationwide. The transactions are segregated by customer, marke
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Fitting A Trendline By Least Squares by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Usually, trendlines are drawn through tops or bottoms. They are also drawn through the center of prices by a lagged moving average or by eye (Figure 1). A straight line through the center
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...How Important Is A Turning Point? by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. So, naturalists observe a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey And these have smaller still to bite 'em; And so proceed ad infinitum. --Jonathan Swift So goes the market. Waves withi
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Logarithmic Point & Figure by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. In the June 1991 STOCKS & COMMODITIES, I described how a turning point could be measured by filtering out minor market moves. The same filtering technique can be used to correct the failings of the
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Member/Odd Lot Trading by Arthur A. Merrill, CMT Stock exchange members, the group that makes up the member trading statistics, should be more knowledgeable than the rest of us, the great ""public."" The members should be smart money -- at least, they sh
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Merrill Directional Patterns by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Can we get clues to price performance from the swings of prices in the last hours of the preceding day? If we ignore volume and the amount of change, the direction of the swings of prices can be
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Merrill MW Waves by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Suppose prices have been moving in a certain way. What are the probabilities for future prices? You must look to the past for similar situations. How similar must the past situation be? If you ask your comp
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Moving Average Crossovers by Arthur A. Merrill, CMT Are moving average crossovers more effective than other indicators? More specifically, how about moving average crossovers applied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average? S&C contributor Arthur Merrill de
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Negative Volume Divergence Index by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. The Market Technicians Association has selected the late Paul Dysart for their 1990 annual award ""for outstanding contribution to the field for technical analysis."" Analyst Jim Alphier, in
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Plurality by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Plurality: Now there's an indicator that has been around for at least half a century. Analyst James Alphier claims it was invented by technical analyst pioneer Paul Dysart, who published a piece on the subject at l
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Price/Dividends Ratio Revisited by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. In 1988 Merrill showed that the price/dividends ratio was useful in calling the 1987 crash. What's the outlook today? In the October 1988 issue of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, I described the useful
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Price/Earnings Ratios by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Here's a look at an old fundamental analysis favorite and what it can do for the technical analyst. For many years I have monitored the performance of a group of 30 to 50 stocks that have been exhibiti
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Resistance by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Prices, like everything else move along the line of least resistance. They will do whatever comes easiest therefore they will go up if there is less resistance to an advance than to a decline and vice versa. --Edw
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Second Hour Index by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. In 1983 I noted an indicator developed by analyst Stan Weinstein: the last hour indicator. Changes in prices in the last hour seemed to be useful in forecasting the future. Having an hourly data bank extend
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Secondaries by Arthur A. Merrill, CMT If the owner of a large block wants to sell without generating a big price decline, he sometimes enlists the help of an underwriter. This type of sale is called a secondary offering. The underwriter uses his skills
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Stock Selection by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. How does a veteran technician like Arthur Merrill select stocks for investment? He explains that it's not the simplest of methods and it does require research and work, but the results, he notes, are worth it
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Stocks above moving averages by Arthur A. Merrill, CMT The percentage of stocks above their moving averages has been tracked for a number of years by Investor's Intelligence, a weekly report that includes the number of New York Stock Exchange issues abo
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Testing Indicators by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Analysts consult scores of indicators to get clues for the future. At any given instant, however, some of the indicators are bullish and some are bearish. They are never unanimous. Which should we believe?
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The 28% Rule by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. A bear market is interrupted by rallies, which cheer the spirits but are then followed by a resumption of the bear market. Finally, one of the rallies turns out to be the first upswing of a new bull market, and
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Elapsed Time Calculator by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Veteran technician Arthur Merrill explains how to derive the number of days, actual or calendar, between two dates using a simple table and some elementary steps. Do you need to know the number o
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Presidential Election Cycle by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. It's an election year again. What does history say about them ? This famous technician tells you that what you've heard about Presidential election years may very well be true. An election ye
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Summer Rally: Fact Or Fiction? by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. The ""summer rally"" appears in some years and is completely absent in others. Does it deserve its name? I've consulted the record back to 1885 and find that there is a good case for a bull
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Time Of Daily High And Low by Arthur A. Merill, C.M.T. Does the time of the high for the day and the time of the low give a clue to the performance of the market on the next day? For example, suppose that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) high po
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Volatility by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. Does the degree of volatility in the stock market give us any clue to the future of the market? I tested day-to-day volatility and found that it does have a good forecasting record. I took the percent change of t
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Volume indicators by Arthur A. Merrill, C.M.T. The activity of the market, its volume, has long been of interest to investors and traders. I have a copy of the first book on stock market technique, ABC of Stock Speculation, written by S. A. Nelson in 19
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Weekly McClellan Oscillator by Arthur A. Merrill, CMT In the September 1989 issue of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities, Richard Mogey described and interpreted the McClellan Oscillator. It's based on daily data. My data bank has been developed