The Evolution of Technical Analysis ─ Financial Prediction from Babylonian Tablets to Bloomberg Terminals

A comprehensive history of the evolution of technical analysis from ancient times to the Internet age
Whether driven by mass psychology, fear or greed of investors, the forces of supply and demand, or a combination, technical analysis has flourished for thousands of years on the outskirts of the financial establishment. In The Evolution of Technical Analysis: Financial Prediction from Babylonian Tablets to Bloomberg Terminals, MIT's Andrew W. Lo details how the charting of past stock prices for the purpose of identifying trends, patterns, strength, and cycles within market data has allowed traders to make informed investment decisions based in logic, rather than on luck. The book
Reveals the origins of technical analysis
Compares and contrasts the Eastern practices of China and Japan to Western methods
Details the contributions of pioneers such as Charles Dow, Munehisa Homma, Humphrey B. Neill, and William D. Gann
The Evolution of Technical Analysis explores the fascinating history of technical analysis, tracing where technical analysts failed, how they succeeded, and what it all means for today's traders and investors.

ANDREW W. LO is the Harris & Harris Group Professor of Finance at MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering. He has published numerous papers in leading academic and practitioner journals, and his books include The Econometrics of Financial Markets, A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street, and Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective. His awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Paul A. Samuelson Award, the Graham and Dodd Award, the James R. Vertin Award, and the American Association of Individual Investors Award. He is also Chairman and Chief Investment Strategist of AlphaSimplex Group, LLC.
Jasmina Hasanhodzic is a research scientist at Alpha-Simplex Group, LLC, where she develops quantitative investment strategies and benchmarks. She received her PhD from MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her works on alternative market betas and technical analysis have appeared in leading publications, such as the Journal of Investment Management, and she is the coauthor with Andrew Lo of the book The Heretics of Finance. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Market Technicians Association Educational Foundation.

Introduction.
Chapter 1 Ancient Roots.
The Beginnings.
Ancient Babylon.
Ancient Greece.
Ancient Rome.
Negative Attitudes toward Traders.
Chapter 2 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Western Europe.
Technical Analysis.
Societal Attitudes.
Chapter 3 Asia.
Japan.
China.
Chapter 4 The New World.
Wall Street.
Societal Attitudes.
Chapter 5 A New Age for Technical Analysis.
Dow Theory.
Relative Strength.
Market Cycles and Waves.
Chart Patterns.
Volume of Trading.
Market Breadth.
Nontechnical Analysis.
Chapter 6 Technical Analysis Today.
Trends.
Patterns.
Strength.
Cycles.
Wall Street’s Reinterpretation of Technical Analysis.
Chapter 7 A Brief History of Randomness and Efficient Markets.
Prices As Objects of Study.
The Emergence of Efficient Markets.
What Is Random?
Chapter 8 Academic Approaches to Technical Analysis.
Theoretical Underpinnings.
Empirical Evaluation.
Adaptive Markets and Technical Analysis.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Acknowledgments.
About the Authors.
Index.