Richard Wyckoff. Father of volumetric analysis
Today, technical analysis of markets is at the peak of its development, and all this is due to the fact that more than 50 years ago there were people with extraordinary views who were able to formulate their idea.
One of the pioneers in the field of technical analysis at the end of the 20th century was Richard Wyckoff; he gave the world the basics of volumetric analysis, which in subsequent years was transformed into a separate VSA technique.
Let's take a closer look at the biography of this wonderful man.
Biography. Career
Richard Wyckoff was born on November 2, 1873. There is no mention of the legend’s childhood and adolescence.
The only thing that all bibliographers know for sure is that the family was very poor, so from childhood Richard had to work hard in order to somehow help his family.
Richard Wyckoff got involved with the stock exchange through the work he did on one of the exchange floors.
After ten years of work, Wyckoff had risen significantly in his career and even became an auditor for a large brokerage company.
When the young man turned just 25, he decided to become an independent player and opened his own brokerage firm.
This decision was inspired by a lucky incident when Richard literally earned a substantial amount of money in a matter of days – a thousand dollars from one transaction, which at that time was a very large sum of money.
Richard, in his line of work researching stocks, came across a company that he believed had just released an innovative product – an air-powered horse collar.
Without thinking twice, Richard Wyckoff buys 300 shares of the company and within a few days receives his first solid profit.
Scientific activity
As Richard gains experience running his own brokerage firm, he comes to understand that the market is driven by large players who drive prices.
Working with wealthy clients, he began to see the importance of analyzing supply and demand, but the question of how to do it remained unresolved.
While Dow and other analysts of the time looked only at the chart, Richard Wyckoff began to pay attention to volume.
And then find those same major players and patterns in stock movements after the infusion of a large sum of money.
It was Richard Wyckoff who first introduced the concepts of accumulation and distribution. Richard later delved into scientific research to refine his approach.
While all stock market players were viewing the price as chaos, Richard Wyckoff began publishing specialized stock market newsletters, which were quickly snapped up by his clients.
Teaching activities
Richard first dared to make himself known to the world in 1908, publishing an article about his approach in the then-famous journal, Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities.
As Richard Wyckoff improved, he repeatedly participated in various stock market tournaments and won prizes, which brought him and his strategy increasing popularity.
Later, Richard began to actively travel around the country conducting paid seminars, which ultimately led to the creation of a university named after him, where one could complete the entire course of study for a small fee.
In his book, Richard Wyckoff wrote that stock trading speculation for the purpose of making a profit is only called speculation if there is an attempt to apply analysis to predict a future price, otherwise it is nothing more than gambling.
Richard Wyckoff died on May 19, 1934, and the training school he founded continues to operate to this day.
