|
News You Can Use 7/25/00
What
is Fibonacci?
Occasionally investors will hear the term Fibonacci tossed around.
What is Fibonacci? Is Fibonacci an investor who tells a
lot of white lies, or is it something a wealthy investor would
park next to his restored Bugatti roadster? Actually it's neither.
If you do research on Fibonacci, life can quickly become extremely
involved before you find any clarity. You will find books with
titles like: "Linear Recursions and Fibonacci Numbers",
"Fibonacci Entry Points and Periods for Primes 100,003 to
415,993", and "Encyclopedia of Mathematics: Fibonacci
Method H". On the Internet there is an official Fibonacci
web site. There is a newsletter call "Fibonacci Quarterly"
that people pay good money for. There is even a 7-volume set of
books published that discusses Fibonacci and no other topic. But
what or who is Fibonacci? Why do we occasionally hear the term
in financial circles, and what does it have to do with making
you a wiser and wealthier investor?
Fibonacci was the greatest European mathematician
of the Middle Ages. He was responsible for Western Europe's shift
from Roman Numerals to the Hindu-Arabic system we use today. He
was born Leonardo of Pisa, in the town with the famous leaning
tower, Pisa, Italy around 1175 AD. His father was Guglielmo Bonaccio,
and he called himself Fibonacci, short for filius Bonacci that
means son of Bonacci in Latin. He traveled extensively around
the Mediterranean coast. In his travels he met many merchants
and soon realized the advantages of the Hindu-Arabic system over
all the others. He was one of the first people to introduce
the Hindu-Arabic number system into Europe - the positional system
we use today - based on ten digits with its decimal point and
a symbol for zero. His book on how to do arithmetic in the
decimal system, called Liber abbaci (meaning Book of the Abacus
or Book of Calculating) completed in 1202 persuaded many European
mathematicians of his day to use this "new" system.
The book describes (in Latin) the rules we all now learn in elementary
school for adding numbers, subtracting, multiplying and dividing,
together with many problems to illustrate the methods. In his
lifetime, Fibonacci did exhaustive research on some of the naturally
occurring number sequences in nature such as the exponential multiplication
of rabbits and the spiral structure of a snail shell. He did research
into wave patterns, what would become called fractals, prime numbers,
and numbers theory. Mathematical principles recorded by Fibonacci
are apparent in the works of inventor and artist Leonardo DaVinci,
composer Bartok, and violinmaker Stradivarius. The principles
are used extensively in art, music, and architecture.
Fibonacci numbers and related principles
primarily derive from nature and are applied to the movements
of the investment markets. Fibonacci is usually used in a phrase
such as a Fibonacci Number or a Fibonacci Retracement or Correction.
These numbers or percentages are frequently presented to quantify
the scope of a likely market correction or market advance. In
addition to the size of a particular market move, Fibonacci
Numbers are also used to try to develop the timing of market movements.
By combining scope and timing Fibonacci models also try to calculate
exact turning points in the markets. Many books are available
that present Fibonacci research in the modern context of the financial
markets, and methodically bring the complete novice to a more
advanced knowledge of how Fibonacci can be a useful tool for the
diehard investor utilizing technical analysis in their investment
research.
QUOTE:
"In
life you're remembered for the problems you created or the problems
you solved" - unknown
Back to the Index
|