Richard Arms Jr.

Richard W. Arms JR

“I have had a Good Life”

Dick Arms, 83, passed away in Albuquerque, NM, on Saturday, March 10, 2018 after heart surgery.  Dick was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, June Arter Arms. They were longtime residents of Albuquerque, relocating from Massachusetts in the 1950’s.

Many of you will recognize Dick by the name of his famous stock market indicator, The Arms Index.  It crosses the tape as ARMS and was originally known as TRIN.  It is a volume adjusted advance/decline indicator that Dick created and originally wrote about for an article in Barron’s in 1968.  From there, his work in Technical Analysis continued to focus on volume aspects of the study.  Dick’s Equivolume Charting Method cleverly combined the volume data directly with the posting of the high, low, and close price statistics.  Dick wrote five books on Technical Market Analysis, focusing always on volume of shares traded, not just the price.

Beyond Dick’s lifetime fascination with markets, was his love of literature and poetry. Dick had an immensely invigorating mind, and his passions were reading, writing and storytelling.  He had the perfect joke for every occasion and was the life of every party he attended. He published many fiction books, including a book of short stories called The Tackle Box about his favorite hobby, fishing.  As an avid fisherman, he traveled to many places to get the “Big” ones; Mexico, Alaska, Bermuda, and Cape Cod, to name a few. He took great joy in passing on the love of the sport to his son and grandson.

Dick loved the Southwest and found inspiration for several of his fiction books from his surroundings. His adventurous nature probably started during as youth spent growing up in Cuba, Colombia and Paraguay on sugar cane plantations, where he learned to speak fluent Spanish.   This spirit continued when he left Brown University and took an assignment to explore and map in the Arctic for the Canadian Government.

Dick was the heart and soul of Toastmasters Club 122 which he joined in 1974.  He was a regular member for over 40 years.  This club was very dear to him and he rarely missed a single Tuesday night meeting.  Dick set the tone for the club as a place where everybody could improve their public speaking skills, while making great friends and having fun.  Dick was an incredible speaker.  But it was much more important to him to mentor others, than to impress them with his skills.  His friendship will be deeply missed by the club.

Dick was always the optimist, even his geese are swans, as the expression goes. Dick is survived by his two loving children, Allison and Rick; three grandchildren, Alora, Amanda and Kelton; his sister-in-law Elizabeth Arms; his niece Meredith Arms Bzdak, two nephews, Bradford and JC Arter; and his best buddy Spud, his loyal Standard Poodle.  Dick was lucky to find love a second time with Mercedes Martinez.  They loved traveling to Mazatlán and they made many new friends along the way.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday May 5th, 2018 at 11:00 am at the Strong Thorne Chapel located at 1100 Coal Ave. SE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106.  Should friends desire, contributions may be sent to Friends of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.