Technical Analysis
How have moving averages performed as an investment strategy over the decades?
Last year I reported on an interesting firm, Thinknum, and its innovative new business model. The company makes sophisticated financial models available to everyone on an open, distributed computing platform. It is one of a handful of firms at the cutting edge, and I felt it was time for a check in with Thinknum’s co-founders, Justin Zhen and Gregory Ugwi.
The momentum effect in investing refers to the tendency of stocks and other financial assets to show persistence in their relative performance. Despite convincing data, momentum hasn’t been widely embraced as an investment strategy.
Utility stocks have previously been identified as leading indicators for broad stock market movements, and important new research not only confirms the predictive power of utility stocks but also puts it to work in a fairly simple strategy which rotates into and out of utility stocks based on the relative strength of the sector.
Carlos Doblado is a prominent Spanish market technician. He is a partner at the advisory firm Ágora Asesores Financieros EAFI SL, manages the mutual fund BSG Prometeo FI, and is a regular presence in the financial media.
In a broad-based study examining two decades worth of returns, a trio of academics find that fund managers who employ technical analysis delivered higher returns than those who did not — results that could help to change the way technical analysis is thought of in the asset management world.