Sometimes even the most thorough homework on fundamentals fails to pinpoint the best time to buy a stock or take profits. Technical analysis helps market players predict the price behavior of a stock, commodity, or any financial instrument, giving clues about the course a trade may take in the coming weeks and months. When market timing is of the essence in making logical, informed decisions about a trade's future, technical analysis is the tool.

In New Thinking in Technical Analysis: Trading Models from the Masters, a dozen top authorities reveal their techniques and strategies for...