The life's work of Robert R. Prechter, Jr. inspired the creation of this organization. As an undergraduate studying psychology at Yale in the late 1960s, Mr. Prechter learned of R.N. Elliott’s pioneering approach to market analysis. While working as a Technical Market Specialist at Merrill Lynch in New York in the mid-1970s, he located the only available copies of Elliott's original books in the New York Public Library and began publishing studies on the stock market. In 1978, Prechter and A.J. Frost co-authored Elliott Wave Principle--Key To Market Behavior. Over the next two years, he started The Elliott Wave Theorist, a publication devoted to analysis of the U.S. financial markets, and republished Elliott's original works along with a detailed biography in a compendium entitled R.N. Elliott's Masterworks.

During the 1980s, Prechter won numerous awards for market timing as well as the United States Trading Championship, culminating in Financial News Network (now CNBC) granting him the title "Guru of the Decade." In 1990-1991, he was elected and served as president of the national Market Technicians Association in its 21st year. During the 1990s, Prechter expanded his firm to provide analysis of all major markets worldwide via print and on-line publications. His ground-breaking volume, Socionomics, expanded upon a thesis first proposed in 1979. He has since presented aspects of his socionomic theory to major universities and academic conferences. Prechter is a member of the MTA, Mensa, Intertel and The Shakespeare Oxford Society.