I maintain its despite TA rather than because of it. Yah, some people "seem" or "claim" to be able to do it. I have never seen or met a pure TA trader who is succesful.
I can only agree with you if one day I meet someone that has "no discipline" or "no risk management" or "trades the wrong trading instruments" and so on while using technical analysis or technical indicators profitably all by itself (nothing else with it). Yet, I'm talking about discretionary traders and not automation or algos of TA. The latter is a different ball game.
How can anyone succeed in the markets with "no risk management", "no discipline"? What are you saying? I contend... "TA done correctly, is like finding money in the street". Marketsurfer disagrees with me. (Must be he says that only because he doesn't know how to do TA correctly, himself... I dunno??) Surf claims, "TA is NOT one of the ways to succeed in the markets". I say he's wrong.
That's exactly my point. You can not succeed with TA when you don't have any discipline to apply the TA correctly accordingly to whatever trading plan you have. Maybe you misread my original statement ? Simply, if TA is done correctly by a discretionary trader...the TA is dependent upon proper risk management, proper trading environment, proper trading instruments, proper discipline and so on to be consistently profitable. Without those variables in one's trading plan...your TA may be correct but you will not be able to consistently profit from it.TA works but not by itself (alone). The real issue by the thread starter...can you get rich ? Yeah, if trading the right trading instruments at the right time while using TA with those other variables I mentioned above. Thus, if you aren't in the right place at the right time...the answer is NO...you will not get rich. In fact, all the stories about traders getting rich...they were trading markets that had unusual volatility during unusual economic conditions that impacted those trading instruments. Now, if you're already rich and you then make a lot more money...that's different.
TA and risk management are not the same and TA is not perfect. To be able to consistently profit from TA without risk management...you're basically stating TA is perfect. Thus, it will compensate for anything missing from your trading plan (e.g. no discipline, no risk management, selecting the wrong trading instruments and so on) all by itself (alone) because of that perfection. Reality, TA is not guarantee 100% correct every time you use it. Therefore, those times when the TA is wrong...your discipline, your risk management better be in place to be able to save your butt. If you can not understand the above...best you sit on it awhile longer by yourself because that's as far I go with my explanation.
Disagree. Peas in a pod. If TA indicates you "do this/that" and you don't... that's your mistake... has nothing to do with the TA.
I never said it has anything to do with TA. I said its the trader (the trader's discipline) and you said its "your mistake". Essentially, we're talking about the same thing while each using different wording. Thus, you actually do agree with my statement that if the trader has no discipline (his mistake)...TA will not work (make a profit) all by itself. Its impossible for the trader to consistently make a profit via TA when there's no discipline (your mistake). Therefore, you can not consistently profit from TA all by itself when the trader has no discipline...you need those other variables (e.g. discipline) even if your TA analysis was correct. Now that we have come full circle to the same belief...take care. P.S. Please don't reply and tell me TA and discipline are the same just like you did when you said TA and risk management are the same via your disagree statement when I said they are different.