Move to connect, train women technical analysts

Everyone talks about women’s empowerment but markets – the ultimate level playing field – still continue to be a man’s domain.

Are skills to succeed in the marketplace gender-neutral? If yes, then why should men alone have all the fun?

This men’s preserve – the markets for various asset classes such as equity, bond, commodity, foreign exchange and real estate – are set to witness some kind of gender balancing. The Association of Technical Market Analysts (ATMA) has taken the initiative to bring together all women practising technical analysis and in course of time train more and more to join the fray.

“ATMA has constituted a separate committee called ‘Women in Technical Analysis’ and has planned to hold educational meetings about markets every month, to start with, in Mumbai,” Sushil Kedia, President, ATMA, told Business Line. Meghna Malkan is the only woman technical analyst on the board of ATMA.

The association has over 500 members of whom only 24 are women although the actual number of women practising and specialising in technical analysis of the country’s markets must be much higher. Some of the globally well-known names of women technical analysts include Connie Brown, Louise Yamada and Katie Stockton.

Technical analysis was born out of the belief that there is a pattern to life’s every movement and the same holds true for markets.

Technical analysts study the pattern of historical price changes and based on scientific interpretation, try to predict future price changes.