All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 23: David Zarling, Chartered Market Technician

David Zarling is a newly minted CMT Charterholder. He is Partner and Head of Investment Strategy & Research at Client First Tax and Wealth Advisors out of Wisconsin. David and I have gotten to know each other over the years and I really appreciate all of the things he is doing. In this podcast episode, David walks us through his process and how it has evolved throughout his career. He uses Technical Analysis to help manage money for clients and most importantly manage risk. I’ve seen a lot of him lately. He attended Chart Summit in Breckenridge, CO in February and then the CMT Symposium in New York in April. He talks about why he goes out of his way to get around like minded individuals to talk about the markets and find people to challenge his thinking. I also really liked the part about the analogies he uses when talking to clients about Technical Analysis and his process. I thought this discussion was a real value add.

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All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 22: Paul Ciana, Chief FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research

Paul Ciana and I go way back to 2006 when him and I were studying for the CMT exams together. Today, Paul is the Chief FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research. In English, that means everything outside of equities. It’s nice to see your friends succeed and watching him crush it is definitely one for the good guys. In this podcast episode we dive deep into the FX world where Paul walks us through 3 important currency pairs that all stock market investors should follow. We talk about Crude Oil and Gold and other precious metals. The Dollar is a key focus right now for both Paul and me, so we get into what the implications are for stocks and other assets around the world. I really enjoyed this conversation. It could have gone on for hours and hours. We’re lucky to have Paul come on the podcast. He speaks to the biggest PMs in the world on a daily basis and has been doing that for close to a decade and half. His unique perspective is a huge value add for sure!

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All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 21: Craig Johnson, Chief Market Technician at Piper Jaffray

This week on the podcast we have the pleasure of chatting with Craig Johnson, Chief Market Technician at Piper Jaffray. I’ve known Craig for a long time and love the work that he puts out. During the day he speaks to buy side clients all over the world. As a past president of the CMT Association, he has surrounded himself with some of the best minds in the history of technical analysis. His perspective based on who he speaks to and his experiences throughout his career make me want to listen when he has something to say. In this conversation we discuss the rest of the year for U.S. stocks and sectors. There’s a part in this episode that focuses on breadth and what we’re both looking for moving forward. Inflation, or lack thereof, is something he’s watching, so we talk about Gold, Oil and other inflationary factors that could impact stocks and bonds. We covered a lot. I really enjoyed this one!

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All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 20: Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street

This week we have a special guest on the podcast: Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street and PM for the $CWS Exchange Traded Fund. This is a show about Technical Analysis so I think it’s important to also include some of the masters of Fundamental Analysis to tell us how they find charts and technicals helpful in their process. Eddy is one of the original Financial Bloggers and I have a ton of respect for him and his work. He is a pioneer in both social media and portfolio management. I love how he explains his appreciation for Intermarket Analysis and Relative Strength as useful tools throughout his process. As many of you know, these two are near and dear to my heart so it’s cool to see the Fundamental community embracing them in similar ways. This was a fun conversation!

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All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 19: Julius de Kempenaer, Creator of Relative Rotation Graphs

Relative Rotation Graphs are some of the best visual tools in Technical Analysis today. In this episode, I am thrilled to have the creator of RRG, Julius de Kempenaer, on to talk about what first inspired him to create this tool and what some of the best practices are for market participants. I discovered RRG about 6-7 years ago after watching a colleague use it during a presentation at Bloomberg in New York City. As a technician, I use charts to visualize data to help identify trends and manage risk. RRG is more of a rotation tool that can be used for sectors, country indexes and currencies. By using a combination of Relative Strength and Momentum data, the RRG rotates clockwise from Leading to Weakening, to Lagging, to Improving and then back again to Leading. In this discussion, Julius walks us through how he likes to use it and explains its construction. If you’re interested at all in sector rotation and relative strength, this tool is for you!

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All Star Interviews Season 2, Episode 18: Greg Harmon, Dragonfly Capital

Greg Harmon is one of the OGs of the Financial Blogosphere. He has been consistently contributing to the community for over a decade. For you new comers, this is how it’s done. Greg is the founder of Dragonfly Capital, where he is the portfolio manager and I encourage you to follow him on Twitter @harmongreg. He paid his dues early in his career traveling around the world and holding senior positions including Head of Global Trading, Head of Product Development, Head of Strategy and Director of Equity at JP Morgan, State Street and BNP Paribas. It was not until after all of this experience that he started his blog and joined our FinTwit community. In this conversation we discuss how although he is both a CFA Charterholder and CMT, he chooses to incorporate more of a technical approach to markets. He then takes it one step further by using options to both maximize returns and, more importantly, manage risk. He is the author of Trading Options and I recommend getting a copy as soon as possible. This was a good conversation with one of the smart guys in the room.

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