Megaphone patterns were first described in Richard Schabacker’s 1932 book: “Technical Analysis and Stock Market Profits,” as rare and intricate patterns.

The unwavering uptrend in stocks in the last few years may be seeing disruption with the return of volatility in 2018. Institutional and retail investors are looking for various gauges to measure the effect of volatility and how that’s trending in the coming quarters. Most analysts think there may be more upside and opportunities to come this year even with (or perhaps because of) the emergence of geopolitical issues.

Financial Technology (Fintech) refers to the technologies used and applied in the financial services sector. During the last decade, due to technological innovations, fintech firms are disrupting traditional financial services sectors in retail banking, investment, mobile payments, loans, fund-raising and asset management. Fintech is also changing customer behavior and expectations as they are now able to access data and information anywhere and everywhere.

The energy sector ranked the last in sector performances in 2017. In June 2017, crude oil traded at a low of $42.37 per barrel and many analysts expected lower prices with a target of $40 or lower as energy market sentiment has been bearish. Crude oil turned bullish in August 2017, when it broke a pattern of lower lows and lower highs by failing to take out the June low.

Applying classic chart patterns to current trading opportunities.

Applying classic chart patterns to current trading opportunities.

The re-awakening of Artificial Intelligence and constant technological advancements have given a rebirth of robotics in the recent years. An open-source based Robotics Operating System supported by Google (GOOG) has changed the robotics field for everyone to build faster and lower-cost robotics applications, machinery in new start-up companies. Exploitation of new Graphical Processing Units has enabled the existence of Big Data, computer vision, deep-learning and machine learning to further accelerate advances in both the AI and robotics fields.