RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 22

RANDOM REMINDER

BLINDFOLD FOR THE BLIND

It was our misfortune recently to receive a copy of a newsletter published in Australia for the express purpose of advising people what and when to buy and sell on the stock markets. Now we need an adviser, or an interpreter, if we are to make the most of the treasure the newsletter undoubtedly holds. For we are not really with it in these matters: our only direct contact with the market is as a nervous tenth of a novice investment group. What about this bit in the newsletter, talking about some highly incomprehensible graphs which appear with it:

i ”... All the ordinary ’ criteria such as tril angle breakouts, confirmed head-and-shoulders I patterns, trendline penei trations and so forth have their degrees of reliabili ity.” It all hints strongly, , somehow, of gymnastics, i But it gets worse, going on ! to babble about. “. . . r Since then, and after the t share split, a head-and-i shoulders type pattern has t been formed, and the i downside break has been i confirmed. . . .” Rugby? Billiards? But let's go on. i “The former would constitute a downside break ' from the consolidation, i and imply a fall of at least some shillings. The

latter would be a catapult confirmation of the fulcrum, and a buying signal.” So there. See how simple it all is. A catapult confirmation of the fulcrum . . . lovely phrase. If we only knew what it meant. And we can’t go and ask our broker. Because it would embarrass him if he didn't know. There seemed, In the whole thing, only one phrase which leapt at the eye as being entirely understandable. “. . . Subscribers should always remember that no market conclusion can be regarded as certain or infallible.” That's for sure.