Pennant Fever

Chart watching has limitations, but the Dow's pattern suggests dull times are about to end

Technical analysts are right up there with lawyers, the opposite sex and people from New Jersey when Wall Streeters start cracking wise. Poor souls, no one understands them. Least of all me. Technicians draw lines through stock charts, studying trading volume, new highs and lows and other esoterica to divine whether the market will go up or down. They're right--half the time. (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.) Still, that record makes technical types just as bankable as the more respected fundamental analysts, who study things like earnings and interest rates.

So stick with me while I take a chart gazer's look...

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