The Heretics of Finance: Conversations with Leading Practitioners of Technical Analysis

Chapter 1. Ralph J. Acampora

When you're practicing technical analysis, you have to be totally eclectic, because there will be a time when the approach you're using doesn't work. If you're not flexible, you'll self destruct.

With forty years of experience, Ralph J. Acampora has been instrumental in the development of modern day technical analysis. He is the New York Institute of Finance's (NYIF) director of technical analysis studies and has taught at the institute for thirty-seven years. Before joining NYIF, he was director of technical research at Knight Equity Markets and worked for fifteen years at Prudential Equity Groups as its director of technical analysis. His career has included positions at several of the financial industry's top firms, including Kidder Peabody and Smith Barney.

One of Wall Street's most respected technical analysts, Acampora is regularly consulted for his market opinion by major business news networks as well as national financial publications, and he has been consistently ranked by Institutional Investor for more than ten years. He is a chartered market technician (CMT), a designation he helped create and which is now recognized by the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA) as the equivalent of a chartered financial analyst (CFA).

Acampora cofounded the Market Technicians Association (MTA) in 1970, is a past president of that group, and continues to be an active member of the society. He also founded and was the first chairman of the International ...