Clive Lambert, CEO of Futurestechs highlights the importance of humanising automated technical analysis

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Fresh from winning best independent research house for fixed incomeĀ (and equities and multi-asset finalist) in this yearā€™sĀ The Technical Analyst Awards.

We catch up with Clive Lambert of Futurestechs on providing technical analysis for traders and brokers

First off ā€“ what does Futurestechs do and who do you do it for?

We write daily analysis on 25+ markets spanning 4 different asset classes: We cover Bond Futures, Equity Index Futures, Commodities (mainly Oil, Gas and Energy markets) and Forex.

Our clients are mainly professional traders, brokers, fund managers and the like.

How would you say that Futurestechs differs from mainstream technical analysis providers like Autochartist and Trading Central?

An easy answer to that would be that our analysis is written by humans! Machines can do a lot but TA is one of those things that can be subjective and experience can win the day on that basis!

There are lots of ā€œboutiqueā€ operations like us out there though. As our clients are mostly ā€œProsā€, some who are using only TA, some who are using it as an ā€œadd-onā€ to their fundamental approach, we try to strike a balance between getting too ā€œtechyā€ with the language and being too simplisticā€¦

What markets and time frames would you say technical analysis is most applicable to?

I started my career as an analyst looking at Fixed Income markets and Iā€™ve always used Candlesticks, Market Profile and two or three other methods to analyse markets.

So far Iā€™ve managed to successfully use the same set of tools across asset classes and markets, which to me is a testament to the robustness of the methodologiesā€¦

As far as timeframes are concerned a few years back I would have said ā€œmainly short-termā€ but I see evidence that longer-term players are increasingly keen users in recent years.

In the 20 or so years that you have been running Futurestechs, what would you say have been your best and worst calls?

I used to go on CNBC a fair bit and one time I said that we MUST be getting near a low in Equity markets. 3 days later was the 666 low (March 2009) in the S&P 500.

It was a contrarian call which I donā€™t often like to make, but it seemed like there werenā€™t any bulls left anywhereā€¦

Itā€™s been a fair old rally since then! More recently we have been following many markets in the Energy complex higher, sticking to a trend following ā€œmantraā€, and thatā€™s served us and our clients well.

Iā€™ve made plenty of bad calls, trust me, but the thing about Technical Analysis is you can always cite a level where youā€™re wrong and a rethink is required.

From all the clients and customers youā€™ve had ā€“ what would you say is the greatest misunderstanding they have when it comes to technical analysis?

Thatā€™s a tough questionā€¦ Iā€™d say itā€™s that people think my job is predicting the future.

Itā€™s not. Itā€™s looking at the chart to try and work out the most probable future direction: Whereā€™s the momentum and is it sustaining said momentum? ā€¦ Iā€™m no Mystic Meg, but a trend is a trend!

Whatā€™s the ultimate goal for Futurestechs?

Early retirement for yours truly!! (As well as that) Iā€™ve always strived to write analysis that helps traders on a day to day basis as well as educating them on the methodologies.

With my STA (Society of Technical Analysts) hat on I think itā€™s important that people are properly educated on TA.

There are a lot of amateur chartists out there that can give the industry a bad name. If people took time to educate themselves they may find it will save them money when it comes to trading the markets!

And finally, what would be your top three sources of analysis and education for traders? Other than Futurestechs of course...

  1. To follow on from the above Iā€™d say the first stop, Technical Analysis-wise, is the STA. The courses are all delivered by/written by industry pros who know their stuff.
  2. If you wanted a ā€œone-stop shopā€ book on TA Iā€™d recommend ā€œTechnical Analysis of the Financial Marketsā€ by John J Murphy ā€“ The Bible! Other books Iā€™d recommend are hereā€¦
  3. One moreā€¦ Hmmmā€¦ Iā€™d say Twitter. There are some excellent traders/analysts on Twitterā€¦ but also a lot of drossā€¦ as is the case with Twitter in general!! So chose carefully!

You can see Futurestechs other awards hereā€¦

THE TECHNICAL ANALYST AWARDS 2018

Clive Lambert MSTA is CEO of Futurestechs and has been in the City since 1986 in Stockbroking, Futures, Commodities and FX, spending the 90s shouting at people on the LIFFE Floor. He is a director of Futurestechs; one of the UKā€™s leading independent Technical Analysis firms. He is Vice-Chairman of the UK Society of Technical Analysis.

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