Earlier this month, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the CMT Global Investment Summit in Dubai.
I’ve traveled a lot over the years, but Dubai hit different.
Standing under the Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world — I was reminded that great things take vision, patience, and smart strategy.
The same goes for the markets: calculated risks today can turn into growth tomorrow.
And then I stepped into the Summit itself — a room packed with some of the sharpest, most brilliant minds in the industry.
It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what you do, or your background — technical analysis connects us all.
Ralph Acampora was there. The godfather of technical analysis. Founder of the CMT Association in the 1970s, back when TA was still considered fringe.
A true legend.
Listening to his stories, seeing the legacy he helped build, and feeling the growth of this community over decades was humbling, inspiring, and honestly kind of mind-blowing.
One thing I really took from Ralph was the simplicity in his approach.
It’s all about identifying trends, keeping it clean, and letting the market show you the path.
JC always quotes Ralph’s timeless reminder: “Don’t fight Papa Dow.”
And guess what? Ralph brought up something most people overlook these days — the Dow Transportation Index.
While many ignore these stocks, he doesn’t.
For him, watching the Dow Transports $DJT confirm or diverge from the Dow Industrials $DJI is critical.
It’s one of the key tenets of Dow Theory — the idea that both indexes should move in the same direction to confirm the strength of the trend.
If one makes new highs and the other doesn’t, that’s a warning. If both trend higher together, it’s a sign of market health.
It’s fascinating how lessons from over 120 years ago still guide us today.
That mindset set the tone for the rest of the event.
One of the biggest takeaways for me was around sentiment in commodities.
The bearishness in Crude Oil is real — you could feel it in almost every conversation.
Everyone seems to be waiting for it to break down.
For me, the line in the sand for Crude lies at 60. Below that level, the path of least resistance is lower. It’s that simple.
On the other hand, everyone’s bullish on Gold.
The move’s been parabolic, and momentum is overbought across all timeframes.
But here’s the kicker — trends in commodities usually last a lot longer than most people expect.
Just look how Gold did between 2001-2011…
That led to a great discussion on bubbles.
When the question came up, most said we’re not in one.
But my pal Jay Woods put it best: even if we are, let’s embrace it — and make money from it.
I also got to contribute behind the scenes with live charting, helping bring insights to life for attendees in real time.
Who would’ve thought?
For me, it was an absolute honor.
In the end, Dubai reminded me of something else too: growth happens outside your comfort zone.
Meet new people, experience new cultures, push yourself into unfamiliar spaces — and yes, sometimes even let loose a little while talking about markets.
