| ATAA Blast! Newsletter #189 – April 2026 | Dear ~~first_name~~
Here is our latest edition of the ATAA Blast! Newsletter, with the very latest new ATAA news. We do hope you find the content useful, and interesting. | In this Blast! edition you can see the following, with links for an easy and speedy go-to to the relevant section below:
- ATAA National President's Update for this month, and an Executive Summary from the recent board meeting, to help keep members informed of what the board has been doing.
- The latest ATAA Website Resource Library updates for the latest month, including uploaded speaker presentation slide decks, and video recording of the presentation.
- Trading Expert Series update (formerly known as the National Speaker Series) of online presentations - we've already had four over the last year, and recordings are up in the ATAA Resource Library. The next one was held last Saturday and was advertised in focused emails - hopefully you saw them. See more details below.
- Updates from the ATAA Chapters and SIGs: Included below are updates for some Chapters and SIGs. Information below also includes the RealTest Coders Online Workshop, and some chapters.
- IFTA 2026 Conference (London) and IFTA information update: The IFTA 2026 conference will be in London in October (see details below). In case you missed it recently last, the latest information from IFTA including details about the IFTA Journal that is available to download - a monster edition jam packed with a lot of useful information.
- TECHNICAL ANALYSIS article - Unfortunately, no article this month.
- And another thing - About ATAA emails and to beware the spam emails.
- Detailed benefits for ATAA members. Just in case you are missing something with your membership.
| I do hope you find this Blast! newsletter useful and interesting reading; but do feel free to tell us what you really think, and how we can improve it.
Robert B Brain
Blast! Newsletter Editor
ATAA Marketing Director
(and ATAA Life Member)
| Our Tag Line:
The ATAA is the knowledge network
for successful financial market
trading and investing
|
From the President's Desk – April 2026
As we move further into the year, the Board has been taking the opportunity to step back and look more closely at how the ATAA positions itself and engages with both existing members and those who are new to the Association. A recurring theme in our discussions has been the importance of clearly articulating what the ATAA offers and how that value is experienced by members over time.
One area receiving increased attention is how we make better use of the substantial body of material the ATAA has built up over the 20+ years of its existence. This includes presentations, journals and other educational resources that, with the right approach, can be used both as valuable content for members and as a way of introducing the ATAA to a wider audience. Work is now underway to explore how this can be developed further in a structured and sustainable way.
At the same time, a number of the more practical aspects of running the Association continue to be refined. This includes improving how we communicate with members, strengthening some of the underlying operational processes, and updating governance documents so that they better reflect how the ATAA operates today.
Planning for upcoming events is also progressing, with work continuing on this year’s online conference in August, the in-person National Conference next year, and the broader calendar of national presentations. These events remain an important part of how members connect with each other and with the broader trading and investing community.
As always, the ATAA relies on the contribution of its members. If you have an interest in becoming more involved — whether through helping with events, contributing to a SIG, or supporting specific projects — we would be very pleased to hear from you.
I look forward to continuing to work with the board and members at large as we build on these initiatives over the coming months.
Jim Haralambidis
ATAA National President
| Executive Summary – ATAA Board Meeting (April 2026)
At its April meeting:
- The ATAA Board met online on Tuesday the 7th April, to continue progressing a range of initiatives across membership, marketing and operations.
- A significant part of the discussion focused on how the ATAA presents itself to both current and prospective members. Work is underway to better define and communicate the Association’s value proposition, alongside broader efforts to enhance member engagement.
- The Marketing Working Group has now begun advancing its program of work, including development of a content-led approach that makes greater use of the ATAA’s existing library of educational material. Current digital campaigns are being reviewed, with adjustments being made to improve effectiveness.
- The Board also continued its focus on strengthening the organisation’s operational framework. This includes ongoing work in areas such as business continuity planning, member communications, and the documentation of governance policies.
- Planning for upcoming events remains active, with further progress being made on the 2026 online conference and the 2027 in-person National Conference, as well as the scheduling of national speaker presentations.
- The Board also reviewed its approach to external relationships, reaffirming the importance of maintaining independence while exploring appropriate sponsorship and collaboration opportunities.
- The next Board meeting will be held on Tuesday 5 May.
| ATAA Website Resource Library Updates - recordings December 2025 – March 2026
HUGE RESOURCE. Our ATAA Resource Library now has many presentations and recordings going back to 2008, as well as hundreds of technical journal articles in the ATAA Journals. You can drill down on these using the website menu: Resources > Presentations by Date.
An alternative way to find something specific on a particular topic is to search the library using the menu option: Resources > Search Resource Library.
The materials recently added to the Resource Library include:
- Thursday 12 March - Melbourne Chapter Hybrid meeting
- Keith Mundy- "Why is it so? Part 3"
- Max Knobel - "Cognitive Biases in Trading".
- Thursday 12 February - Melbourne Chapter Hybrid meeting
- Jim Haralambidis - "Description of a Practical Trading Setup"
- Matthew Jones - "What to Expect in 2026".
- November Trading Expert Series:
- Edwin Cornelissen - Building a Portfolio of Strategies That Work Together.
- Thursday 11 December - Melbourne Chapter Hybrid meeting
- Alan Clement- "Global Markets Quarterly Technical Outlook"
- Alan Oliver - "W.D.Gann trading tools and strategies".
All of these items can be found from the ATAA website menu: Resources > Presentations by Date. Make sure to browse the earlier recordings in the Resource Library, because you never know what you've been missing. And you can also search the Resource Library by keyword. If your local chapter or SIG has a video recording, or a (PowerPoint) slide deck of a recent session, then it can also be added to our library collection. | |
ATAA National Board updates
| | | Advertise your events widely: In our Melbourne meetings (including the separate BullCharts User Group meetings), I've found that having a current event entry in Eventbrite gives us broad promotions, and it has resulted in a couple of extra visitors to our meetings, which typically convert into a new member. You can see my event entry for the May Melbourne meeting here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1987169373088.
Eventbrite is free to use for "no charge" events. All you need to do is create an Eventbrite account.
Robert Brain (ATAA Marketing Director) | ATAA Trading Expert Series – Markets, Models and Mindsets | ATAA's Trading Expert Series presents Marsten Parker
"Systematic Strategy Development in the Age of AI"
What happens when one of the most accomplished systematic traders in the world starts handing strategy research to AI? Marsten Parker — the only systematic trader profiled in Jack Schwager's Unknown Market Wizards — demonstrates live how he's using large language model AI to meaningfully accelerate the strategy development cycle. Whether you're an experienced quant or getting more serious about systematic trading, this session offers a practical look at how AI tools are beginning to reshape how strategies are built and tested.
Why You Can’t Miss This Event
Marsten's track record and consistency have been exceptional — over 22 years his average annual return has been in excess of 20%, with only 2 losing years. Parker's average annual compounded return more than tripled the return of the S&P 500 index during the same period. This isn't theory from a textbook — it's a practitioner who has been trading his own capital full-time since 1998 pulling back the curtain on his actual workflow. He'll walk you through how he develops strategies in RealTest — the backtesting and portfolio simulation platform he built from his own trading needs — and then reveal a genuinely frontier approach: using Claude Code as an AI research assistant that can iteratively write scripts, run tests, and interpret results from a plain-English description. You'll see both the manual and AI-assisted workflows demonstrated live, giving you a clear picture of where systematic strategy development is heading right now.
Event Details:
Date: Saturday, 11 April 2026
Time: 09:30 am AEST (Sydney / Melbourne) Check the time and date in your location
Location: Online webinar – Join from the comfort of your own home
Speaker: Marsten Parker, Founder at RealTest
Cost: Free for members and non-members
Did you know? RealTest was voted #1 Standalone Analytical Software by readers of Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities magazine in their 2026 Readers' Choice Awards.
What You'll Learn:
- The architecture behind RealTest — how its multi-strategy portfolio simulation model handles strategy rules, position sizing, capacity constraints, and live order generation within a unified scripting environment.
- New platform capabilities — an overview of recently added analysis features, expanded scripting tools, and workflow automation enhancements that streamline the research process.
- Manual strategy development, demonstrated live — watch Marsten build a strategy from initial idea through testing and refinement to live order generation, using the interactive research approach he's honed over two decades.
- AI-powered strategy research — see how a large language model (Claude Code), with the right scaffolding, can write RealTest scripts, execute backtests, and interpret results iteratively — substantially compressing the research cycle.
- Practical insights from a 25+ year track record — learn how Marsten thinks about avoiding overfitting, adapting to changing market conditions, and knowing when a strategy has stopped working.
| | About the Speaker:
Marsten Parker has traded his own account for a living since 1998, following a 14-year career as a software engineer. He initially trained as a concert violinist before switching to computer programming, founding and selling a software company before turning to trading full-time. Parker is the only purely systematic trader featured in Jack Schwager's Unknown Market Wizards — the fifth book in the iconic Market Wizards series — where his long-term track record is documented in detail.
A defining characteristic of Marsten's approach is what he calls his "Spirit of Experimentation" — a persistent willingness to question, iterate, and improve. RealTest has evolved alongside his trading practice over more than two decades as his primary strategy research tool, and today serves a growing community of systematic traders worldwide as a purpose-built backtesting and portfolio simulation platform.
| | |
Who Should Attend:
- Systematic and algorithmic traders looking to sharpen their research workflow or evaluate a new platform for strategy development and live order generation.
- Discretionary traders exploring automation who want to understand how a proven Market Wizard approaches the transition from idea to fully mechanical execution.
- Developers and quants interested in how AI-assisted scripting and analysis can dramatically accelerate the strategy development loop.
- RealTest users who want a deep look at the latest platform features and learn advanced techniques directly from the creator.
- Anyone serious about trading as a craft who wants to learn from a practitioner with a 25+ year track record of consistent, documented results — not just theory, but the live, working process behind it.
Registration:
Registration for this event is complimentary (no charge) for both ATAA members and non-members.
Reserve your spot for this complimentary webinar by clicking below. You'll receive a confirmation email with further details after registering.
These Trading Expert Series webinars are usually held on a Saturday every 3 months or so, and recordings of the sessions are in the ATAA website Resource Library.
Alan Clement
ATAA Director | ATAA Conference Working Group Update | ATAA Online Conference Coming This August
The ATAA is excited to announce that planning is well underway for our 2026 online conference, themed "The Trading Edge: Where Analysis, Strategy, and Mindset Converge" The event is tentatively scheduled for Saturday 22 August and promises to be a full day of high-quality trading education.
The Conference Working Group (CWG) has been hard at work assembling a compelling speaker lineup. The team is actively reaching out to several well-regarded names in the trading world, with international speakers also being explored. The committee is aiming for five to six presenters across the day. The format will include individual presentations and may include a panel discussion and audience Q&A session to close out the event. The event will be delivered via Zoom Webinar, so you can participate from anywhere.
Tickets will be priced at just $99 for members, representing outstanding value for a full day of expert content. Non-members are welcome to attend for $199, and that ticket will include a complimentary six-month ATAA membership — a fantastic way to introduce friends or colleagues to our community. The team is also lining up sponsorship partners to help make the event a success, with several well-known industry names in discussions.
We'll confirm the final date and full speaker lineup in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on your inbox. This is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the ATAA calendar — mark mid-August in your diary now!
2027 In-Person Conference Venue Survey
We're also excited to begin planning our 2027 in-person conference and we'd love your input on one of the most important decisions - where to hold it.
We're currently considering three location options in the Melbourne region, each offering a different experience. Whether you're local to Melbourne or travelling interstate, the venue choice will shape the overall conference experience, so your perspective matters.
To help us make the best decision for the group, we've put together a short two-question survey. It should take less than a minute to complete. Take the Survey now!.
Alan Clement
ATAA Director | CHAPTER and Special Interest Group (SIG) news and updates
| ATAA Chapters, SIGs and Network groups
For the benefit of ATAA members everywhere, the ATAA has a number of: Chapters, and Special Interest Groups, and Network Groups. Current financial members are free and welcome to participate in any of these. We are hopeful that all of these groups will submit some information for publication in the Blast! News from time to time, to help our hundreds of readers understand more about the opportunities and benefits for ATAA members.
For the latest meeting information, check the ATAA website for details, and also scroll down the website home page to see the latest announcements, presentations and updates to the resource library.
| | ATAA Chapters (alpha order) meeting monthly
- Adelaide
- Brisbane
- Canberra
- Melbourne
- Perth
- Sydney
| | SIGs and Networks (and contact names)
- Melbourne Quant SIG (Mohamed Nasher)
- RealTest Coders (online) Workshop (Chris Meakin, Robert Grigg)
- MetaStock Users SIG (Jerry Bongard)
See the ATAA website for latest information.
| | |
Remember to bring your portfolio selection to our next meeting. If you would like to enter the portfolio competition and cannot make it to the meeting, send your selection to gabriel.spacca@ataa.asn.au.
Good trading and good health.
Mark Gleeson
ATAA Canberra Chapter President
[The Canberra Chapter generally meets on the third Tuesday each month.]
| | RealTest Coders online Workshop
latest news | | |
March’s RealTest Coders workshop (operating under the Melbourne Quant SIG) saw 17 participants:
- Discussing how best to identify stocks that will soon be delisted. The majority of participants used a line of code highlighting a price jump, followed by virtually no change in price over the following days and weeks.
- Discussed how to reconcile delisted stocks with OrderClerkStats.
- Spoke at great length on using Claude AI to:
- streamline strategy development; and
- scrape ASX and SEC headlines, and SSRN papers for use by strategies.
Somewhat related to the Claude AI discussion we held is Marsten’s presentation in the Trading Expert Series to be held on Saturday, 11 April 0930 hrs. SYD time.
At the next meeting (to be held on Monday, the 13th of April), we will have an open discussion.
Come along with any ideas or critical challenges.
The meetings are aimed at competent users of RealTest, but new users and intending users are more than welcome to join. A number of participants have also formed small ‘coding buddy’ groups (2-4 users) to develop and code up strategies collaboratively.
The RealTest Coders workshop meets online monthly. Recordings of the meetings along with any associated material can be found in the RT Coders SIG forum here.
[Usually meets on the second Monday of the month.] | | Melbourne Chapter News
latest news | | | Our April meeting was upset by the doubts about petrol prices and availability, so we had an online only event with a record attendance. Every month the recordings go into the ATAA website Resource Library - use the website menu: Resources > Presentations by Date. We are hopeful that the May meeting will be back to normal so that we can participate in:
- Invaluable networking (or "common gossip") from 5.15pm to 6pm (including free finger food),
- The interactions in the room during the broadcast session 6-8pm, and
- Further networking and guest speaker mingling over dinner after 8pm.
Don’t forget that public transport (tram) runs past the hotel front door, the train station is only 700m away, and there is ample car parking around the corner and nearby.
And if you see any of our committee/council members below, please thank them for their invaluable contributions in helping to run our hybrid meetings, and make sure that we get a quality video recording ro edit and upload to the ATAA Resource Library on the website. And I would like to welcome a new committee/council member to our team – Mohamed Nasher.
Robert Brain
ATAA Melb Chapter President and interim Secretary
(for the Council team: Paul Ash, Jim Haralambidis, Keith Mundy, Tony Hambling, Tony Leonard, Robert Grigg, Mohamed Nasher). | We have a total of six chapters around Australia, as well as several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in which members can participate. You can see a list of the six chapters and their office-bearers on the website - use the menu option: ATAA Overview > Current Office-Bearers > Chapter Councillors > Subcommittees. See the ATAA website for latest meeting and event details.
- Adelaide Chapter generally meets in-person on the third Wednesday of the month.
- Perth Chapter generally meets on the third Thursday of the month.
- Brisbane Chapter generally meets... second Saturday of the month.
- Sydney chapter - TBA.
- MetaStock Users SIG - Contact Jerry Bongard, jerry.bongard@ataa.asn.au
- RealTest Coders Workshop (sub-group of the Quant SIG) - Meets online, generally on the second Monday of each month at 8:00 pm. EST (to give members in western states a better chance of attending). SIG Coordinators: Chris Meakin and Robert Grigg.
| IFTA 2026 Conference in London -
London Calling! The next Wave in TA.
The conference expert speakers will share their perspectives on how technical analysis should evolve to respond to the dynamic global trading landscape we are all experiencing. As an international gathering of technical analysis professionals and thinkers, the conference offers extensive networking opportunities. IFTA 2026 is an opportunity to meet our fellow IFTA member association colleagues.
See conference details on the IFTA website: https://www.ifta.org/ifta-2026-conference.
| IFTA Update Newsletter - The IFTA Update is a quarterly newsletter, reaching more than 7,000+ IFTA colleagues worldwide. It is a great tool for communicating and advertising to the technical analysis community worldwide. The March 2026 issue (Vol 33 Issue 1) can be downloaded here (this PDF is 13 pages and 6.5MB). In this issue:
- President's Report to Colleagues
- Member News
- IFTA 2026 Conference
- Congratulations New CFTes
- Congratulations New MFTA
- In Memoriam
- IFTA Journal Call for Submissions
- and more
| About IFTA (International Federation of Technical Analysis) - It is the umbrella organisation for Technical Analyst societies around the world. See a list of IFTA member societies in the IFTA Update Newsletter.
IFTA webinars: See the latest information about up-coming and past webinars on the IFTA website. | IFTA Journal (26)
In case you missed it recently, the 2026 IFTA Journal is available for you to download from the IFTA website here. (It's 88 pages and 22 megabytes in size - quite large).
"There is no old or new technical analysis. But there are new ideas that can be adopted without discarding the old, cherished approaches. Perhaps the textbooks need to be thicker, or the body of knowledge broader. Because our world just keeps on turning. But it can also be fun and broaden your own horizons."—Dr. Rolf Wetzer, CFTe, MFTA, Journal Editor
”Markets are never wrong – opinions often are.”—Jesse Livermore
Inside this issue:
- MFTA Papers
- Articles (several, including: Stochastic, Prediction is Difficult, GSR Bands)
- Book Review - "The Intelligent Fund Investor" by Joe Wiggins, reviewed by Regina Meani.
| | | IFTA and ATAA members - ATAA members are automatically affiliate members of the International Federation of Technical Analysts. ATAA membership gives you access to IFTA resources including: certification programs, educational events and networking opportunities, including participation in the IFTA Conferences. The information below is the latest update from IFTA.
IFTA Update (quarterly newsletter) - The IFTA Update is a quarterly newsletter that is available to members of the ATAA. | The ATAA Elevator Pitch:
Join the ATAA to improve your understanding of how to
invest or trade successfully in the financial markets
focusing on the correct use and application of Technical Analysis
(if someone asks you what the ATAA does, simply tell them this) | |
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
and Trading/Investing Tips
| | | Due to an abundance of tasks in my in-tray, we don't have a Technical Analysis article this month. If you are keen to see one next time, please email to me and let me know.
Robert Brain | And another thing... About Emails | Before you unsubscribe:- Please note that if you ever unsubscribe from any of the ATAA emails, then unfortunately you will be unsubscribing for ALL ATAA emails. So please think carefully before hitting the Unsubscribe button.
Beware Spam emails! - On a different topic, one of our members emailed me recently to advise that he has been receiving more spam emails than usual. We all need to be very careful about the emails we receive these days because many of them are spam (unwanted and unsolicited), and they can contain sometimes hidden links to download suspicious or malicious software for nefarious purposes. The bottom line is to always be on alert to these attempted actions. | ATAA Member Perks and Benefits
| If you're not an ATAA member, and you are considering joining, you might be interested to know there are many good reasons to sign-up, including:
- Learn how to protect your hard-earned capital - using wise stock selection, and money and risk management ideas;
- Invaluable education opportunities (with discounts for members);
- Huge and extensive Resource Library (access for members);
- Networking opportunities - meet with like-minded peers for trading and investing discussions;
- Special Interest Groups (SIGs) (only for members) - there are several;
- News and information;
- Online Forums;
- Annual ATAA Conference (discounted for members).
| In Closing
I do hope you have found this edition of the Blast! Monthly News both interesting and useful. Feel free to send my any feedback - good or bad.
NOTES about this newsletter: The appearance of this email newsletter can be a little different depending on how you view it. In Google's Gmail the Gmail Inbox might show just a portion of this edition. At this stage I am not sure of the best way to work around this issue. And my apologies continue for any odd formatting that you might find which I cannot resolve - font size or line spacing etc - as these seem to be oddities in our CE email editor tool (there are probably odd HTML codes hidden behind the text, which we have not found yet). Every month when I prepare this newsletter, I spend ridiculous amounts of time fiddling around trying to make the line spacing consistent throughout, and the font sizes consistent; but it still turns out less than I would want it to.
Robert B. Brain
Blast! Newsletter Editor
| |