There are more bad charts than good charts in the stock market right now

Technical analysis can occasionally be inscrutable.

To many, it might look like a bunch of lines arbitrarily drawn over a series of other lines.

Take Burton Malkiel, for example, who in his canonical book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" wrote that, "On close examination, technicians are often seen with holes in their shoes and frayed shirt collars. I have personally never known a successful technician, but I have seen the wrecks of several unsuccessful ones."

To die-hard technicians, however, one chart will look like another chart - say, the US stock market in 1929 and the Chinese stock market now - and this will paint a clear picture of what's really going on in the market right now.

Fortunately, J.C. O'Hara, a technical analyst at FBN Securities, has created, you guessed it, a chart that is accessible for both novices and experts alike simply laying out the current market situation right now: there are more bad charts than good charts out there.

By "bad chart," O'Hara means charts with defined downtrends - meaning the line is more or less moving down and to the right. By "good chart," O'Hara means charts with defined uptrends - meaning the line is more less moving up and to the right.

Do with this what you will.