John Hancock Funds is betting that its money management clients are ready for Bollinger bands, moving average convergence/divergence and the Relative Strength Index.
The John Hancock Technical Opportunities Fund, which was introduced Tuesday by the Boston unit of Toronto's Manulife Financial Corp., is the second in the United States to rely solely on stock charts for investment decisions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
It is among the 10 most popular of Hancock's 54 mutual funds, attracting about $1 million a day, according to Keith Hartstein, the company's president and chief executive officer.
The portfolio, which requires a minimum investment of $10,000, can shift all its assets into cash when the managers foresee a slump in stocks.
Only one other U.S. mutual fund, the $8.6 million Huntington Technical Opportunities Fund, begun in May 2008, uses technical analysis exclusively, according to Bloomberg data.
Technical analysts decide what to buy and sell using price and volume trends. They shun strategies based on company financial statements and valuations.
