all the underlying fundamental factors. Uncovering future trends is what technical indicators are designed to do, although neither technical nor fundamental indicators are perfect. Some traders use technical or fundamental analysis exclusively, while others use both types to make trading decisions. Comparison with quantitative analysis The contrast against quantitative analysis is less clear cut than the distinction with fundamental analysis. Some sources treat technical and quantitative analysis as more or less synonymous. While others draw a sharp distinction. For example, quantitative analysis expert Paul Wilmott suggests technical analysis is little more than 'charting' (making forecasts based on extrapolating graphical representations), and that technical analysis rarely has any predictive power. Characteristics Technical analysis employs models and trading rules based on price and volume transformations, such as the relative strength index, moving averages, regressions, inter-market, and intra-market price correlations, business cycles, stock market cycles or classically, through recognition of chart patterns. Technical analysis stands in contrast to the fundamental analysis approach to security and stock analysis. In the fundamental equation "M = P/E" technical analysis is the examination of M (multiple). Multiple encompasses the psychology generally abounding, i.e. the extent of willingness to buy/sell. Also in M is the ability to pay as, for instance, a spent-out bull can't make the market go higher and a well-heeled bear won't. Technical analysis analyzes price, volume, psychology, money flow, and other market information, whereas fundamental analysis looks at the facts of the company, market, currency, or commodity. Most large brokerages, trading groups, or financial institutions will typically have both a technical analysis and fundamental analysis team. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was widely dismissed by academics. In a 2007 review, Irwin and Park reported that 56 of 95 modern studies found that it produces positive results but noted that many of the positive results were rendered dubious by issues such as data snooping, so that the evidence in support of technical analysis was inconclusive; it is still considered by many academics to be indistinguishable from pseudoscience. Academics such as Eugene Fama say the evidence for technical analysis is sparse and is inconsistent with the weak form of the efficient-market hypothesis. Users hold that even if technical analysis cannot predict the future, it helps to identify trends, tendencies, and trading opportunities. While some isolated studies have indicated that technical trading rules might lead to consistent returns in the period prior to 1987, most academic