The Data Delivery Revolution

Beginning of article

I began trading the futures markets in the late 1970s. The only data source available for trading was daily charts, usually purchased from a vendor and updated by hand. Technical analysis consisted primarily of a few crude indicators. Cycle analysis, Stochastics and the Elliott Wave were some of the most sophisticated and widely taught techniques for tranders.

The challenge confronted by individual traders was attempting to trade against experinced traders and large institutions who had been using daily charts for a long time. How could a neophyte expect to be successful trading against those with many years of experience and substantially greater resources? It was difficult and I was not particularly successful.

In an attempt to get up to speed, I attended the first of its kind Futures Symposium in Chicago …