Chartered Market Technician

Chartered Market Technician (CMT) is a professional designation that confirms mastery in technical analysis of the financial markets. To hold the designation, fully granted professional membership in the CMT Association is required. As of 2018, there are 1,387 CMT charterholders worldwide.

The CMT program

The Chartered Market Technician (CMT) Program is a certification process in which candidates are required to demonstrate proficiency in a broad range of technical analysis subjects. Administered by the Accreditation Committee of the CMT Association, the program consists of three levels. CMT Level 1 and CMT Level 2 are multiple choice exams while CMT Level 3 is in essay form.

The CMT Association, then known as the Market Technicians Association began to develop the CMT program in 1985. Just as other professional organizations have standards of competence for members, so the CMT designation provides a recognized standard of proficiency for technical analysts. (The CMT examinations are administered by Thomson Prometric, which administers other professional tests, such as the CPA exam.)

The objectives of the CMT Program are:

• To guide candidates in mastering a professional body of knowledge and in developing analytical skills;
• To promote and encourage the highest standards of education; and
• To grant the right to use the professional designation of Chartered Market Technician (CMT) to those members who successfully complete the Program and agree to abide by the CMT Code of Ethics.

The CMT program includes three levels of examinations, each building on the previous. The levels progressively narrow in focus while increasing the emphasis on higher-order reasoning.

Series 86 exemption

In February 2005, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recognized levels 1 and 2 of the CMT exam as an alternative to the Series 86 Examination, as part of the rule changes filed by the North American Securities Dealers Regulation, now known as Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and NYSE.^[1] This recognition on the part of securities regulators and the self-governing bodies of the securities industry provided significant new credibility to technical analysis.

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