Katie Stockton

Katie Stockton doesn't just read charts , she's built her entire career around the conviction that technical analysis, done systematically, can give investors a genuine edge. As founder of Fairlead Strategies and portfolio manager of the TACK ETF, she's turned decades of Wall Street research into a rules-based sector rotation strategy that takes the emotion out of one of the market's most powerful return drivers.

The name Fairlead itself tells you something about Katie's approach. It's a nautical term , a part on a boat designed to let lines run free without tangling. "There's a nautical reference and there's the subtle hint at technical analysis giving folks an edge in investing," she explains. It's a fitting metaphor for a strategy built around letting market signals flow cleanly into investment decisions.

From Point-and-Figure Charts to Systematic Sector Rotation

Katie's path to technical analysis started with an internship at a PaineWebber office in Richmond, Virginia, where she spotted a pile of papers with X's and O's on an advisor's desk , point-and-figure charts from Dorsey Wright & Associates. That local firm hired her as an intern, and she spent two years hand-charting point-and-figure patterns. "I found that it was a really great way to be close to the market," she recalls.

Her university was one of only 12 offering coursework in technical analysis at the time. She remembers Ralph Acampora standing in front of the class, tearing the Wall Street Journal in half, declaring "you don't need this anymore." That moment crystallized her path. From there, she built a career on the sell side , Morgan Stanley's technical strategy team, E*Trade's research group under Mike Curley, and most recently BTIG , before launching Fairlead in 2018.

Along the way, she shifted from point-and-figure charts to bar charts. "As much as I appreciate them for the analysis, they were really hard to go in front of a client who was not technically inclined with, because you really had to start from square one," she explains. Bar charts proved more digestible from what she calls a "marketing perspective" , a practical insight that carried into how she designs her research products.

The TACK Strategy: Rules-Based Sector Rotation

Fairlead's research business produces a flagship weekly report covering S&P 500 sectors with apples-to-apples chart comparisons. "It's a really good way to keep yourself honest , to not let biases work their way into your views," Katie says. "You can't argue against the trend. You can't argue against the indicators."

That systematic methodology became the foundation for TACK. Katie noticed that many advisors were already attempting sector rotation using sector spider ETFs, trying to leverage trends in technology, financials, or energy. The problem was their approach wasn't systematic. "I saw opportunity there because I really believe in approaching markets systematically," she explains. "We're not trying to be ultra predictive in our work. We're rather trying to react to trends, momentum shifts, overbought/oversold indications."

The sector rotation space offered what Katie calls "the lowest hanging fruit" for finding outperformance. In any given year, the dispersion among S&P 500 sectors can be enormous , she points to energy being up 50% in a year when nothing else was in the green. "Wild dispersions. And sometimes they're hard to capture, but over the course of 20-plus years, it's been a really great way to go about markets."

Why the ETF Wrapper Works for Sector Rotation

The ETF structure was chosen deliberately for TACK. Active sector rotation generates frequent trades, and the ETF wrapper provides tax advantages compared to trading individual sector funds or using mutual funds. "The ETF wrapper gives the sort of tax advantages... and it's the most accessible," Katie notes. "You can go and buy an ETF on your platform. You don't need to fill out a bunch of paperwork."

This matters especially for TACK's strategy because the rotation signals can trigger meaningful portfolio changes , overweighting sectors in uptrends and underweighting those in downtrends. In a taxable account, doing this with individual sector ETFs would generate taxable events with each rebalance. Inside TACK's ETF structure, those rotations happen without the tax drag.

Beyond the ETF: Building a Research Business

Fairlead isn't just an ETF shop , it's a research firm with multiple products. Beyond the flagship weekly report, they publish a Substack newsletter targeting retail investors with opportunistic ideas outside the S&P 500, plus dedicated cryptocurrency research. "We're really very prolific," Katie says. The research consulting business and the ETF feed each other, with the systematic methodology underlying both.

What stands out about Katie's approach is the disciplined conservatism. She's not making bold predictions or trying to call tops and bottoms. The entire framework is designed to react to what the market is actually doing , following trends rather than forecasting them. For advisors who've been burned by emotional decision-making or narrative-driven investing, that systematic discipline is the product.

In an industry full of people claiming to have cracked the code, Katie Stockton is refreshingly transparent about what technical analysis can and can't do. It's not a crystal ball , it's a systematic framework for reading what the market is already telling you. And with TACK, she's made that framework accessible to anyone with a brokerage account.

Key Takeaways

• As founder of Fairlead Strategies and portfolio manager of the TACK ETF, she's turned decades of Wall Street research into a rules-based sector rotation strategy that takes the emotion out of one of the market's most powerful return drivers.
• It's a fitting metaphor for a strategy built around letting market signals flow cleanly into investment decisions.
• Her university was one of only 12 offering coursework in technical analysis at the time.
• From there, she built a career on the sell side , Morgan Stanley's technical strategy team, E*Trade's research group under Mike Curley, and most recently BTIG , before launching Fairlead in 2018.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.