Ponsi, Technical Analysis and Chart Interpretations

Books on technical analysis, with few notable exceptions, have pretty much become commoditized. Ed Ponsi’s Technical Analysis and Chart Interpretations: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Established Trading Tactics for Ultimate Profit (Wiley, 2016) is unfortunately not one of those notable exceptions. It is a clearly written, well balanced introduction that checks all the right boxes, but it breaks no new ground.

Ponsi’s expertise is the forex market. He is the author of Forex Patterns and Probabilities (2007) and The Ed Ponsi Forex Playbook (2010).

In this book, however, he focuses on equities. In a little over 350 pages he deals with such topics as support and resistance, trends and trend lines, volume, gaps, price patterns, candlestick patterns, Fibonacci techniques, technical indicators, point and figure charting, cycles, and sentiment indicators. He illustrates these topics with ample black-and-white charts.

Someone new to technical analysis would, I believe, find Ponsi’s work to be a useful textbook. For those who already incorporate technical analysis into their trading and/or have read two or three decent books in the field, it is not a must-have addition to the library.