What does a Technical Analyst do?

Technical analysts engage in the process of examining data that is relevant to a given situation and developing recommendations that are anticipated to produce desirable results. In order to accomplish this goal, the technical analyst will make use of the process of technical analysis, which is essentially a structured method of identifying and evaluating key factors and elements, and qualifying the most efficient use of resources on hand.

When it comes to the work of the technical analysts in the financial market, the technique focuses on helping investors to make decisions that will result in the greatest yield. The technician that makes use of this analytical approach will consider current and past market conditions and project a variety of different sets of future events related to the market. By developing these scenarios, the analyst can make recommendations about what stock to buy, when to buy it, and at what point the stock should be sold in order to achieve the highest return on the investment.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the work of a technical analyst in the financial world. First, there are those that see this analytical approach as being grounded in simple facts and common sense. Thus, the technicians are understood to be following a logical thought process that has an appreciable chance of accurately predicting future market movements. There are investors all over the world who consider the technical analyst to be key in the task of making wise investments.

At the same time, there are those that dismiss this approach to market evaluation as being nothing more than a waste of time. The technical analyst may be considered to be a few steps removed from the status of a charlatan, with critics of the process even branding the methodology as being a pseudoscience or even comparing the approach to parlor magic. When this is the prevailing thought process, technicians that make use of technical analysis are considered to be non-essential to the investing process.