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James Marsden Hurst 1924—2005

After Profit Magic — sources and limits of the post-Hurst corpus

A critical map of the Cycles Course and the Hickson tradition: which sources Cyclepedia holds, which concepts are reconstructed indirectly and what cannot yet be attributed directly to Hurst.

Who this entry is for — Readers who want to study phasing, FLD, principles and diamond notation while knowing which claims come from the book, which are reported by Hickson and which cannot yet be checked against the course text.

The editorial history after The Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing (1970) includes the J. M. Hurst Cyclitec Cycles Course and a much later teaching tradition represented here primarily by David Hickson.

Cyclepedia holds the text of Profit Magic, but does not hold a complete copy of the Cycles Course. It therefore does not use Hickson as though his work were a direct transcript of Hurst.


Provenance levels

Level Available source What may be stated
hurst-1970-primary Complete Profit Magic Content verifiable by chapter and page
cycles-course-indirect Syllabus fragment and later descriptions Reported existence and themes, with indirect attribution
hickson-post-hurst 10 Core Concepts and three white papers Hickson's formulations and procedures, including where he attributes them to the Hurst tradition
emiciclo Later proprietary development Independent layer, outside the historical reconstruction

This distinction prevents readers and AI models from merging documents separated by decades.


Actual state of the sources

*Profit Magic* (1970)

This is the available primary source for the price-motion model, envelopes, half/full-span averages, VTL within the book's scope, selection, cases, filters and appendices. The path is extensive, but many legacy pages still require point-by-point verification.

*Cycles Course* (1970s)

The course's existence is documented and the collection preserves a syllabus fragment. This is not enough to verify the complete lesson sequence, the exact formulation of the eight principles, or every procedure that the later tradition attributes to it.

A future entry on the course's structure will remain draft until a primary text or reliable bibliographic manifest becomes available.

David Hickson / Sentient Trader

The available sources describe:

  • ten teaching concepts, including a harmonic nominal model, variation, synchronized troughs, M-shape, underlying trend and time translation;
  • phasing analysis in three stages;
  • post-book use of FLD and VTL;
  • a trading methodology reported as coming from the course.

These contents may be cited as Hickson. When Hickson says that he is summarising Hurst, Cyclepedia records the attribution but does not transform it into direct verification of the course.


Post-book path with provenance

Entry Current provenance
post-Hurst synthesis to verify principle by principle
source-checked against Hickson's description, not against the course
referenced through Hickson
Hickson/post-Hurst formulation
source-checked against the declared post-Hurst sources
construction checked against Hickson/Sentient Trader documentation
post-book procedure reported by Hickson

None of these labels implies contemporary predictive effectiveness.


Withdrawn claims

The previous version stated that Hurst himself regarded the course as the method with which he achieved his operating results. In the collection, this claim comes from Hickson's account, not from a primary document by Hurst; it has therefore been withdrawn as a direct attribution.

The rigid comparison “mathematically weak book / superior graphical course” must likewise be attributed to Hickson and not presented as an established historical verdict.


Sources

  • J. M. Hurst, The Profit Magic of Stock Transaction Timing, Prentice-Hall, 1970.
  • David Hickson, 10 Core Concepts of Hurst Cycles, Sentient Trader PDF.
  • David Hickson, “Hurst's Cyclic Analysis”, white paper 2.
  • David Hickson, “Trading with J. M. Hurst”, white paper 3.
  • A Review of J. M. Hurst Cycles Course, syllabus fragment held in the Cyclepedia collection; unpublished source.