...Thunderdog politely expressed his disagreement with my position. I am merely politely asking back why disagrees. It's called dialogue.
Here's a book I've always liked. It's more of a "cliffnotes" book on technical analysis. You get a brief summary on just about every technical analysis idea you've heard of. Then, if you find something that interest you, you can look for more indepth sources. Trading Systems and Methods...by Perry J. Kaufman
Sorry for the confusion, hypostomus. If you carefully read what I wrote, you will see that I essentially agreed with you in a back-handed way. Indeed, I think that most (though not quite all) TA books are of little or no value. The few that I found marginally useful only gave me some background information to build on from my own study of the markets. In any event, I found much of the theory to be fanciful. Certainly the books on "technical indictors" were not worth the postage I paid, let alone the price. But that is just my opinion. Regards, Thunderdog
Breakout, That book is great for someone with a foundation in TA and wants to further his education. It's like a encyclopedia of TA almost. It also gives you EL code if you want to learn programing with TS. It has a place in my library and I use it when I hear something and want a quick reference.
...my apologies also. I was not prepared for good Southern humor. Once in a great books discussion someone cried out in agony "This discussion is fruitless!" From the other end of the room came the reply (from a cajun) "On the contrary, I think it is full of fruit!" You must learn that if you are going to agree with a mechanical system trader, you must do so explicitly, within the cold rules of logic, leaving no room for misinterpretation, so we can code you up.
I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Nison's Candlesticks book. While TA encompasses every chart style including OHLC bars, etc, candle charts provide a great way for the newbie technician to get going.
Pring has always played second fiddle to Edwards and Magee, but I prefer it: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071381937
It's usually preferable to go to the sources, which is this case are the books I mentioned. Everything else is just a variation on the themes presented there.