Patricia Elbaz catches up with Axel Rudolph

THE STA

Patricia Elbaz catches up with Axel Rudolph, head of the STA Education

Patricia Elbaz

Patricia Elbaz is an independent Technical Analyst and University Lecturer, specialising in the FX, Equity and Commodity markets. She was Foreign Exchange Manager - Technical Analysis at MMS Standard & Poor’s before moving on to consulting work... Read more

Axel Rudolph

Axel Rudolph is Head of Education of the Society of Technical Analysts, and former STA Chairman (2013 to 2018). Prior to becoming chairman he was responsible for education and program organisation at the STA for six years. He has been a lecturer on the STA Diploma Part 1 and 2 courses at the London School of Economics and at Queen Mary University of London for nearly two decades. From 2007-2010 Axel was Vice-Chairman Europe on the board of the International Federation of Technical Analysts (IFTA)... Read more Axel it looks like it’s been a busy year for the STA switching from face-to-face courses to online education. How have the students adapted to the changes?

Patricia, yes the STA education committee has indeed been very busy, especially last year at the start of the pandemic when we very early on realised that we wouldn’t be able to teach our lectures in situ anymore. Our lecturers’ and students’ health has always been at the forefront of our minds. We thus spent the whole summer of last year testing online teaching and especially online Zoom invigilated examinations which, I am pleased to say, worked out extremely well. We were the first IFTA society to offer online invigilated examinations and had such a smooth transition from in situ to online teaching and examinations that we decided to stick to this format of teaching/examinations for this year as well.

The STA has introduced a new foundation course at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) this year. Can you tell us more about the course and the response from the students?

The education committee felt that many students at the several London universities we teach at had a hard time sitting the STA Diploma Part 1 examinations on top of everything else they had to deal with in these unprecedented times. Furthermore, since only very few students historically have gone on to sit the STA Diploma Part 2 examination we believed that a “Foundation in Technical Analysis” course, examination and certificate would benefit university students more. With this in mind we streamlined the course taught at QMUL and recreated an entirely new multiple-choice examination data base.

I am pleased to say that the new one-hour open book examination went extremely well. A record number of students sat the new STA Foundation Exam in Technical Analysis and the pass rate has increased to around 84%, on par with that of nonuniversity students who sat the STA Diploma Part 1 Examination.

The QMUL post-graduate students stated that the STA course added a lot of value to their course and the university would like us to continue to work in the new format.

Overall, how have the results been for the Part 1 and Part 2 exams?

Interestingly enough, the examination results have been above average for those who sat our first online examinations last year, perhaps because those students who didn’t postpone their examinations because of the pandemic were the best prepared? The following examinations were mostly in line with previous examinations over the years, that is to say a few merits and distinctions and an overall pass rate in the 75%-80% region.

Lastly, please tell us about the courses coming up in 2021/2022 and future educational projects.

44 THE STA

and because STA Administrative Services have done a lot of work perfecting the whole online experience for lecturers and students alike the 2021/2022 courses should be our best yet, especially since they can be done by anyone, anywhere in the world!

We are, for example, pleased to have Constance Brown from Aerodynamic Trading, a world renowned Gann specialist, multiple book author and IFTA education committee member, teach our Gann lecture in the upcoming STA Diploma Part 2 Course. Connie has also kindly rewritten the Gann unit in the STA Home Study Course (HSC) (please add link), including her latest work. Future educational projects are to teach at several more UK universities, create a third level STA Course and Examination which focuses on systematic trading and continue to update and refresh the STA HSC, thus keeping it cutting edge.

Thank you, Axel and congratulations to all students who were successful in the Foundation Course, STA Part 1 and Part 2 exams. We look forward to welcoming many more in the future.

To browse all the STA courses, check the website www.technicalanalysts.com

STA EDUCATION

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Booking well underway for the CISI and IFTA accredited online STA Diploma Part 1 and Diploma Part 2 courses.

The two courses have been designed to cater for newcomers and experienced professionals who are looking to challenge themselves.

They will learn to develop the methodology, tools and confidence to make better informed trading and investment decisions in any asset class, anywhere in the world.

www.technicalanalysts.com/education