Momentum> Hi TA and Fundamental. TA & Fundamental> Hi Momentum, good to hear from you. Momentum> Happy to meet you both again. Fundamental> Buy and hold is king, example Mr. Buffet. Momentum> Fundamentals is for the lazy. TA> Agree. Momentum> TA, I heard many people are using. TA> Sure, because it was working fine and we had a lot of success. Momentum> Many technical analysis is junk, too much progress on its development and become more complex and far from the reality. Let get down to basic. TA> Silly. What are you talking about? Momentum> 1. Design your own system to detect a fast moving train. 2. Try to jump on it. 3. Bear in mind that the train will crash soon in the near future. Don't hold the bag.
So, you're telling me that eyeballing the chart and drawing a line where a stock stopped going up qualifies as TA?
I agree. Using past price action (and/or volume and/or breadth, etc.) in any way to arrive at trading decisions in the present is TA. It does not matter how you do it. The how is simply a matter of form.
I've traded the same profitble automated system for 4+ years. No TA, no Arb...solely price action (no historical data). Not to mention another less profitable system that also only uses price action. It could all be done without charts.
You have a good point, but you can find correlation without looking at historical prices. For example, you watch a basket of stocks that together make up 90% of an index, but you trade the index future. They have to be correlated, and you don't have to look at historical data to know that.
I would not call a baysian learning system TA, just probability. But maybe I'm wrong. Edit: I guess baysian learning would be used for market making, and you guys wouldn't call that trading I guess
What a wonderful post. I mean that sincerely, not a slam. I do want to add a thought to it though. Tape reading is TA when it is done correctly, IMHO. My opinion is based on the Tape being a "technical" print on an individual Market and the "analysis" being ones ability to "read" the print. The Opening Range or Daily Pivot Range is based on the "Tape" . . . PRICE! There are many that have added to TA over the years with indicators like MAs, RSIs, CCIs, Fib, Gann, Elliott, etc., but all they have done is muddy the waters. They have clouded the beauty and simplicity of the TAPE! Rock On Fader. We probably don't agree on the path but the destination is the same.
Let me ask an unusual bigger question since many trading systems out there can get quite advanced in the formulas and whether it uses TA or not is a distant second to whether you are making $$$ off it.. Are there people who wish to distance themselves from the use of the word "TA" in their approach because it has some negative stigma? This is a question and I have no bias or pre-determined answer. Just wanted some opinions from the masses. TA always carries with it some baggage in discussions.
I agree with optioncoach here. What else would you call it? Quote from FaderTrader: So, you're telling me that eyeballing the chart and drawing a line where a stock stopped going up qualifies as TA?