ideas: Mr. Matzke, you were inducted into the Extel “Hall of Fame for Developed Europe” – one of the highest honors for capital market analysts ever. What does this award mean to you personally?
Achim Matzke: It is a remarkable award for me and my professional life’s work to date, especially since only 38 people in Europe have been inducted into this Hall of Fame. I find it particularly valuable that it is a result of the annual surveys carried out by Institutional Investor and the Extel Survey among (global) financial market participants about research quality. If an analyst has been ranked No. 1 in individual research category polls at least 10 times since 1990, he or she will be inducted into this Hall of Fame. I am proud that I have achieved this as an employee of Commerzbank for many years, which in my opinion was not or is not a global player in Anglo-Saxon investment banking, and from the Frankfurt am Main location.
If you look back on your professional journey so far: Which stations or decisions were particularly formative for you?
My education at the University of Bonn with a degree in mathematics and the further specializations there in business administration as well as the capital markets in general and the stock and derivatives exchanges in particular laid the foundation for my professional and private interest in these areas. It should be emphasized that Commerzbank gave me the opportunity to pursue a professional position that offered a lot of creative freedom. Together with my analysis team (employees in Frankfurt and London), we were able to take advantage of this scope, and being inducted into the Hall of Fame is a very special result.
Was there a moment when you knew that you wanted to focus primarily on technical analysis?
Even at university, I noticed, compared to other analysis methods and techniques, that technical analysis is a rule-based analysis technique and that it is a primary analysis technique. It is possible to develop the entire analysis yourself, without being integrated into a higher-level, cost-intensive system (with many specifications). Nothing is perfect, but technical analysis with all its analysis tools can provide (market) orientation for both very short-term periods (intraday trading) and very long-term trends. I also find it remarkable that technical analysis always offers a “recommendation for action” for acting on the markets. This applies not only to “good weather periods”, but also to challenging, volatile market phases.
How has technical analysis changed over the past few decades – and in your opinion, what remains timeless?
Thanks to modern technology and automation options, the charts and thus the application of technical analysis can be brought to any screen at any time.
Which methods or indicators are still indispensable for you today?
I prefer newly occurring buy or sell signals, intact upward and downward trends, relative strength or weakness of the analysis object compared to a benchmark index and continuous risk management of the position, for example through one or more hedging stops. Caution is always advised in medium-term, heavily overbought or oversold situations on the markets or in individual products. I don’t think you should try to take too many risks. There are new opportunities in the markets every day.