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The tape readers: Financial trading as a visual practice
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Authors: Richard Cochrane
DOI: 10.1386/pop.8.1-2.109_1
Keywords
finance,speculation,history,occult,technical analysis,visualization
Abstract
Since the early twentieth century, speculators have used visual methods to detect future trends in prices. The resulting visual hermeneutics has become known as ‘technical analysis’. Although it has some mathematical elements, however, its genealogy is much stranger. This essay traces elements of this tradition including its associations with vibrations and cycles, numerology, astrology and hermeticism. Elements of these traditions can be detected in mainstream trading manuals even today.
