V.11:2 (61-69): The Critical Eye Of Laszlo Birinyi by Thom Hartle

The Critical Eye Of Laszlo Birinyi by Thom Hartle

Laszlo Birinyi of Birinyi Associates is a most unusual technician, one who is critical of most technical methods. Birinyi, a former director of Salomon Brothers, is currently head of his own market research consulting firm and one of Wall $treet Week's 10 technical elves. STOCKS & COMMODITIES Editor Thom Hartle spoke with Birinyi via telephone on November 25, 1992, discussing his work on researching indicators, the importance of historical analysis and his work on money flow analysis.

At one point, perhaps by examining the market and living with it constantly, I began to get the sense that most people talking about the market were not in touch with what really goes on in the market.

Quite frankly, people practice too much technical commentary, always focusing on where the market is going, instead of having a better understanding of where the market is.

For starters, could you give our readers a short summary of your background?

I began my career on Wall Street in the 1970s as a trader on the desk of Arbach, Pollack & Richardson. I was there until November 1974, when I went to Mitchell Hutchins. At Mitchell Hutchins I was concerned with what you might call trading tools—traders were pretty much left to their own devices and there wasn't really much information on the short term or on the market. I tried to develop some sense of the market by subscribing to any number of technical services, and I tried a lot of newsletters. At one point, perhaps by examining the market and living with it constantly, I began to get the sense that most people talking about the market were not in touch with what really goes on in the market.