Not many strategists begin studying technicals in college, but that was the route Katie Stockton took. As an undergraduate at the University of Richmond, she studied graduate level coursework in technicals, eventually becoming an intern at technical analysis firm Dorsey Wright.

Stockton discusses how the total volume of stock-market trading has fallen since the financial crisis. Is it algos or indexing or HFT causing the fall-off? Some combination of all of the above? She describes her favorite indicators (Trend, Fibonacci, etc.) and some of her not-so-favorites (Elliot Wave).

As chief technical strategist for BTIG in New York City, she looks at the world as a top-down analyst, considering everything from interest rates to stock prices to economic indicators. But she keeps coming back to charts and the trend as the dominant factor driving all of her analysis. Her work led her to win the 2017 Best Institutional Brokerage for Equity Research at the 2017 Technical Analyst Awards.