Despite its enormous, and growing, popularity, technical market analysis still often gets a bad rap. Purveyors of this art have been called tea-leaf readers and many similar names, but that has nothing to do with what technical analysis attempts to do. If we strip away all the fancy indicators and obtuse jargon, what is left are time-tested methods of finding worthwhile investment opportunities and assessing their risk. There is no fortune telling here; only figuring out what to do in the market, the only part of the markets that we can control.

This book offers you the basics needed to look at a chart and get a feel for what the market or individual stock is doing. It covers only the nuts and bolts of chart analysis, briefly touching upon the next level concepts, while leaving the whiz-bang advanced stuff well alone.

This book will add a new dimension to your current methods of stock selection and investment strategies, and help confirm or refute what you may already know. By the end of the book, you may be drawn to further learning and eventually discover that charts can, indeed, be the primary, if not sole, investment decision-making tools.

Michael N. Kahn has served as chief technical analyst for BridgeNews, a division of Bridge Information Systems. USA . Currently he writes the twice-weekly column "Getting Technical" for Barron's Online. He also produces a daily technical market newsletter, Quick Takes Pro, (www.QuickTakesPro.com).

He has been a regular guest on the Nightly Business Report on PBS, has appeared on CNBC, was the editor of the Market Technicians Association newsletter and has also written two other books on technical analysis.

Prior to writing technical commentary, Mr. Kahn was a senior product manager for Knight-Ridder Financial before that company was merged into Bridge. He was responsible for the marketing design of several of the firm's charting software platforms and launched technical analysis coverage for Knight-Ridder Financial News. He was also a co-editor of the Tradecenter Market Letter.

Prior to joining Bridge / Knight-Ridder Financial in 1986, Mr. Kahn was a senior municipal bond specialist with Merrill Lynch. He also worked in the Financial Planning Department at Shearson Lehman American Express.

Mr. Kahn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Economics from Brandeis University and a Master of Business Administration from New York University .