FX WOMEN IN FOREX
Charmer name that you’ve used for your chart forecasts since 1996?
CH: Well, as a young red jacket
back in 1983, your badge had your company name on it (in my case, MID for Midland bank) and just above it was your name (C.Harmer). Tus was born the Charmer nickname that stuck with me most of my time on the LIFFE floor and beyond.
I leſt LIFFE 5 years later to work for
the banks, but aſter 10 years in major bank dealing rooms, I realized the banking world was not for me. I hated the politics and the bureaucracy of the banks. Traders were bogged down with reports. I was becoming a paper churner. I decided to return to my first love, the LIFFE floor, which had since leſt the Royal Exchange and grown 10 fold at Cannon Bridge. But while the building moved, I realized the LIFFE traders had not. Most of the traders did not use any chart points and levels at all, and had little idea how these charts could really help the day trader on the floor. Banks had moved forward by that time, and there were Technical Analysis desks in most of the major city banks.
Tere had been an explosion of
LIFFE locals who knew nothing about charts, levels, supports/ resistances, so I did a few charts for friends, and before I knew it I was
58 FX TRADER MAGAZINE July - September 2011
under siege at the opening bell for levels and pearls of wisdom. I was busier than I’d ever been at the banks. Tus, CharmerCharts was born.
MG: How did technical analysis
enter your life? Tell us about your first big win, your “ah-ha!” moment.
CH: As a junior Treasury Bond
trader, I would sit with the other T. Bond traders in the coffee lounge before the market open and listen to all
these clever, intelligent men
discussing things that completely went over my head. Yet, every bloody day, like clockwork, the market rallied while all my otherwise brilliant colleagues spent day aſter day selling
on another day of bond rallies), I wandered behind the booths and saw a man looking at a screen of charts. I’d never seen or heard of charts before. Tis man offered me a look at a T Bond chart and it was like a million lightbulbs flashed before my eyes. I felt I’d found the holy grail. I swear I could have cried. I must have stayed by that screen for 3 hours.
Te bond market had in fact been
The man offered me a look at a T bond chart and it was like a million lightbulbs flashed before my eyes. I felt I’d found the holy grail
into the market and scrambling just before the close to buy bonds back at a loss. I could not get my head round that. I did mention this to my boss one day, and was told in no uncertain terms Bonds were going down.
One Tursday, when I stayed
behind on the floor whilst my boss went home (bemoaning his losses
in a downtrend since 1977. Bonds then went sideways for years, and, in the past few months, had broken their base formation and were on their way higher, possibly back to the 1977 high which was 10524 (I will never forget that level). I was amazed…Te problem was our new young traders had only ever traded Bonds from the sell side of view. It had worked for 5 years, but the trend had changed, and they had not yet spotted that…. another million lightbulbs went off in my head.
MG: When did you decide
to act on your new-found knowledge?
CH: Te very next day! I gathered
up my support and resistance levels, worked out my daily pivots, waltzed into the pit, and started buying bonds to the (friendly) boos and hisses of my fellow traders. It closed 30 points higher.
Sadly this did not help my boss,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88