Why technical analysis, e.g. charting is not for funds?

globevestor

Fund charting is free and common for US investors, e.g. http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=ewu,uu[w,a]daclyiay[dd][pb50!b200!f][vc60][iUb14!La12,26,9]&pref=G But not here. What do you think is/are the reason(s)?

1. I do not know/believe in technical analysis
2. I know/believe in technical analysis but it is not for funds
3. Applying technical analysis on funds is too troublesome/expensive
4. I do not believe/invest in funds
5. No, I use technical analysis for funds
6. I don't know

EdInvestor

globevestor wrote:

Fund charting is free and common for US investors, e.g. http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.web?c=ewu,uu[w,a]daclyiay[dd][pb50!b200!f][vc60][iUb14!La12,26,9]&pref=G But not here. What do you think is/are the reason(s)?

I'd have thought the clientele doesn't exist: most sophisticated investors who would be interested in charts buy shares, not funds.

IFA performance judgments tend to be made on the basis of who the fund manager is and annual performance figures.

Switching funds/momentum investing ( as with al-yrpal here ), where charts would be useful, is pretty new and probably doesn't yet have many enthusiasts.

dunstonh

My answer isnt up there.

You have many IFA firms paying large amounts of money each month for this sort of thing. Make it free and those companies lose a fortune. I would certainly move to a free version if it was good enough and provided what I needed over the full cost versions. That being said, a number of providers, including fund supermarkets are beginning to make this sort of thing available for their platform and at no cost to the IFA.

globevestor

EdInvestor wrote:

I'd have thought the clientele doesn't exist: most sophisticated investors who would be interested in charts buy shares, not funds.

IFA performance judgments tend to be made on the basis of who the fund manager is and annual performance figures.

Switching funds/momentum investing ( as with al-yrpal here ), where charts would be useful, is pretty new and probably doesn't yet have many enthusiasts.

I agree sophisticated investors usually shy away funds. What if the market they have expertise in is no longer in bull mode? For example tech market in early 2005. Do you try to squeece a few pounds from a "lemon" or look for another bull market which you may not have intimated knowledge?

I understand fund charting is relatively new. Interactive Investor is offering free charting with a few technical indicators.

globevestor

dunstonh wrote:

My answer isnt up there.

You have many IFA firms paying large amounts of money each month for this sort of thing. Make it free and those companies lose a fortune. I would certainly move to a free version if it was good enough and provided what I needed over the full cost versions. That being said, a number of providers, including fund supermarkets are beginning to make this sort of thing available for their platform and at no cost to the IFA.

A fund supermarket that offer simple technical fund charting for everyone is Interactive Investor

deemy2004

You can get good charts on Investment trusts all over the place right from Ft.com onwards so forget funds - go for investment trusts

As for TA not applicable to funds ? funds trend so yes it is applicable.

I mean take a look at Btem British empire Securities and tell me that TA does not apply !

You can't get a better chart than THAT to invest in !

http://mwprices.ft.com/custom/ft-com/interactivecharting.asp?pageNum=&company=NEW&industry=&region=&extelID=&isin=&ftep=&sedol=&FTSite=FTCOM&symb=BTEM&countrycode=uk&t=e&s2=uk&q=BTEM&osymb=BRE&ocountrycode=uk&expanded=true&subtab=1&colMode=&time=4yr&freq=1dy&chartsize=4&compidx=aaaaa%3A0&indName=aaaaa%7E0&ma=0&maval=20&type=2&comp1=&comp2=&comp3=&uf=4096&lf=4&lf2=512&lf3=16777216

nearlyrich

globevestor wrote:

A fund supermarket that offer simple technical fund charting for everyone is Interactive Investor

I use that to track my pensions, shares and ISA investments, not that I have loads but it's nice to see how it's growing after a few bad years.:xmassmile

al_yrpal

Rumsfeld springs to mind - "We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

Sectors of markets are driven by the sentiments of the root mean squared view of investors, some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom are simple. I deliberately try to take a distant view, it will hopefully be that same as the RMS view and allow me to accurately predict the behavoir of that overexcited, overeacting excitable persona that the stockmarket is.

But a pal, who is sucessful at spread betting does very well with his charts. Good luck to chartists.

globevestor

globevestor wrote:

A fund supermarket that offer simple technical fund charting for everyone is Interactive Investor

Additional alternatives for fund charting
1. http://www.advfn.com. See posting on this(http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?postid=228306#post228306)
2. Free charting software - FCharts SE(http://www.spacejock.com). Review on this can found at http://info.channelnewsasia.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=253368#253368

globevestor

I have just released v1.0.5 of Fund Downloader. Fund Downloader will download free fund prices for you. If you do not have charting software, try FCharts SE. It is free as well.

globevestor

Free site to screen funds using MACD