Book description
The Heretics of Finance
provides extraordinary insight into both the art of technical analysis
and the character of the successful trader. Distinguished MIT professor
Andrew W. Lo and researcher Jasmina Hasahodzic interviewed thirteen
highly successful, award-winning market professionals who credit their
substantial achievements to technical analysis. The result is the story
of technical analysis in the words of the people who know it best; the
lively and candid interviews with these gurus of technical analysis.
The first half of the book focuses on the technicians' careers:
- How and why they learned technical analysis
- What market conditions increase their chances of making mistakes
- What their average workday is like
- To what extent trading controls their lives
- Whether they work on their own or with a team
- How their style of technical analysis is unique
The second half concentrates on technical analysis and addresses
questions such as these:
- Did the lack of validation by academics ever cause you to doubt
technical analysis?
- Can technical analysis be applied to other disciplines?
- How do you prove the validity of the method?
- How has computer software influenced the craft?
- What is the role of luck in technical analysis?
- Are there laws that underlie market action?
- What traits characterize a highly successful trader?
- How do you test patterns before you start using them with real money?
Interviewees include:
Ralph J. Acampora, Laszlo Birinyi, Walter
Deemer, Paul Desmond, Gail Dudack, Robert J. Farrell, Ian McAvity,
John Murphy, Robert Prechter, Linda Raschke, Alan R. Shaw, Anthony
Tabell, Stan Weinstein.
A
ndrew W. L
o is the Harris & Harris Group Professor of Finance at the
MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of MIT's Laboratory
for Financial Engineering. His previous books include The
Econometrics of Financial Markets, A Non-Random Walk Down
Wall Street, and Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective.
He is also the founder and chief scientific officer of AlphaSimplex
Group, LLC, a quantitative investment management company based in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
J
asmina H
asanhodzic is a research scientist at AlphaSimplex Group, LLC,
where she develops quantitative investment strategies and benchmarks,
including the CS 130/30 Index. She received her PhD from MIT's
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where she
proposed new methods for automating technical analysis and replicating
hedge fund betas. Her work has appeared in the Journal Of
Investment Management and Institutional Investor's Alpha
magazine. A summa cum laude graduate of Yale College, Hasanhodzic is a
recipient of a number of awards for academic excellence and a member
of several honor societies, such as Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research
Society.
