From seeing the market to marketing the seeing: Technical analysis as a second-order epistemic consumption object

Technical analysis is a technique used by many share traders in their quest to make profits on financial markets. This paper, drawing on qualitative research which focused on non-professional traders, theorizes how the technique represents an extension of the theory of the epistemic consumption object proposed by Zwick and Dholakia (2006a). It is proposed that technical analysis is a “second-order” epistemic consumption object. Technical analysis relies for its existence upon financial markets - indeterminate objects to which traders have been able to orient themselves due primarily to their visual, on-screen presence. But visual manifestations of technical analysis allow it to usurp the role of financial markets, and be conceived of as the primary object to which traders relate, even as the constantly changing information upon which technical analysis relies highlights its incompleteness. This role as a second-order epistemic consumption object is reinforced by the commodification of technical analysis, whereby the technique is marketed as a consumer product that can be constantly updated, refined, and renewed by the proliferation of consumer products and services available.