Economics & Strategy – Technical Analysis: First

In the pole position for an eighth year in a row is Jeffrey deGraaf of Renaissance Macro Research. “Generally speaking, I think we’re going to be plagued by a range-bound market — any momentum that develops tends to be policy-induced, and the effects don’t tend to be long-lasting,” says deGraaf, 44. “Frankly, that makes it pretty challenging.” He is alerting investors to the styles and attributes that are working in this environment. “You certainly have some momentum in various sectors, and so we’re trying to identify those as quickly as possible,” he explains. He likes health care, as a lot of names emerge from “what appear to be decadelong base formations and seem to be the new secular trend” — for example, companies that provide pharmacy benefit management services and have a retail distribution network. “This area stands out to us as being relatively resilient and seems to be capturing the early attention of Wall Street investors.” One buy-side enthusiast notes that “Jeff has a way of bringing technical research out of the voodoo-ish mumbo jumbo and into the real world.”