Book excerpt: In Time the Markets, award-winning technical analyst Charles D. Kirkpatrick applies technical analysis to key economic indicators and shows how to use them to identify market shifts, avoid loss, and become a more profitable long-term investor. Drawing on many years of publicly available data, Kirkpatrick demonstrates how to uncover powerful buy and sell signals and shows how to incorporate corporate, industry, monetary, sentiment, and market data into reliable timing indicators that can help you recognize impending stock and bond market dangers--and get out of the way. Relying primarily on proven technical analysis methods, Kirkpatrick incorporates trading system methods that have proven successful in market timing, including trend and momentum analysis, use of protective and trailing stops, and periodicity. Reflecting the latest insights into behavioral finance, he shares important new insight into measuring marketplace momentum and sentiment--helping long-term investors identify and evade the marketplace irrationalities that often cause capital loss.