The Villanova Technical Analysis Group, an organization aimed at teaching students how private and commercial investors actually trade stocks, currencies and commodities, recently began activity after being formed by sophomore business major Gregory Di Prisco.

“With Villanova having such a large amount of students who will one day work in the financial field, it is almost unfair that any type of information regarding technical analysis is not offered,” Di Prisco wrote on the group’s blog, vtag.blogspot.com.

Technical analysis is a method of evaluating securities utilizing market data, including charts of price, volume and open interest in order to predict future market trends, according to investorwords.com.

The group held its first meeting on Oct. 23.

“I want to teach you the most effective and probable way to extract money from the market,” Di Prisco said at the meeting. “This is something everyone can learn. Once you get it, you can trade any market at any time. People on Wall Street make fun of us, but the [technical analysts] that do succeed make big money.”

At the first meeting, Di Prisco briefly showed attendees how to trade using candlestick charts and how to analyze a trend line. One of the group’s long-term goals is to have a managed account.

“Many students are looking forward to trading their own money with the skills they are currently obtaining, and we may consider forming some sort of consultancy,” Di Prisco said. “But that is still a distant goal.”

The group will welcome its first speaker, Joe Cicchetti, on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. Cicchetti is a former member of the New York Mercantile Exchange Executive Board. He is a technical analyst who has made his living day trading and will be teaching those in attendence about being a trader and his methods of trading.

“He’s one of the best tech guys on Wall Street,” Di Prisco said.

Since the first meeting, the group has been separated into smaller groups who have been meeting with Di Prisco on a weekly basis for a half hour to learn some basic technical analysis.

“So far we have gone over trend-line analysis, and they are picking it up very well,” Di Prisco wrote in an e-mail to The Villanovan.

Di Prisco has been trading foreign currencies for five years and interned at a wealth management firm in New York for a year.