deaddog, Please do not mistake me. I am logical thinking person. Binary thinking. I do not know if price action trading makes money. I am not saying it even makes money. What I am saying and what I have proof of, I have never witness someone who trades or even talks about trading price action makes money consistency. That is enough logical and low probability of success for me. But guess what is the leading trading course on the internet selling right now. Do you know why internet marketers and people talk about price action so much? Because its unverifiable. No 3rd party auditors, not even a spreadsheet showing accountability of trades. But everyone is so eager to teach somebody about it. The proof is in the pudding.
If it doesn't work for you, you shouldn't use it. I believe it works for me if we are defining PA the same way. "The plotting of past price over time". What price has done in the past gives me an idea of what it might do in the future.
Price action imo is trading largely without mainstream conventional retail type indicators but could include trend, volatility, speed, channels, breakouts, volume, turnover/liquidity, correlations etc. But price action trading to succeed also needs to consider what you trade, when you trade and how long you hold, how focused and disciplined you are. Also you need the correct tools, good data, good connections, reliable computers, a plan/strategy, experience, news/mkt information, well capitilized, good software.... Examples: You will most likely not succeed trading high volatile instruments, using leverage for short periods of time, the odds are stacked against you. To trade succesfully you needs the ducks to line up, being a contrarian trader going short in a bull market is going to be problematic. Saying (price action) trading won't work is like is like asking an accountant to fix your car. It takes experience and the right person to trade according to their environment. No one flys to the moon these days because we dont currently have the tools, experience or resolve, but that doesn't mean flying to the moon is impossible.
Theres a bunch of stuff which will undo you..... If you lack laser type focus. If you cant take pain of losing. If your position sizes too large. If you spook easily. If you have no sensible rigid plan. Lack of experience, no mentor, dont know what to believe. Trying to operate purely from charts, cant code, use no databases... Use silly indicators which have been marketed to retail for years. Listen to talking media heads who want to offer you guidance. Jumping from pillar to post, all over the shop, impatience, nervous. Taking profits too soon, allowing losses to run. Brokerage/fees eating profits. Paralysis from analysis. Too much time mulling charts/indicators, not trading instead. Also, some spend too much time coding for perfection, not enough trading.
Indicators are nothing more than price action manipulated to be visually pleasing. Price has to move before the indicator moves.
That's not true, even the common narrative that 95% of traders lose money is also not true, at least this isn't factual in 2021, about 70% of retail traders lose money consistently nowadays. So 25% have adapted by way of learning. Risk management or trade management, whatever you want to call it, is the thing that's the culprit when consistently losing money, which also includes many factors. So pinning it on price action is silly, it's absence of risk management. Just look at what happened to the guy that lost 20bn in 2 days.
90%+ lose (who knows what the exact % is). Now. Yesterday. Tomorrow. The game doesn't exist otherwise.
Indicators are usually formulas which involve a lookback period which then creates a lagging situation. A lagging situation gets you in late, out late and results in slippage, eg into trend late, out of trend late, you get a very small bite of the profit if lucky. Price action is not a lagging indicator.
Deaddog, My great grandfather use to always say. "Boy, I see better than I hear" I hear you talking, but I still don't see nothing.