Do large banks and institutions use TA to profit?

Systems are sold, TA is an open source, do what you want with it.

 

And people sell it via training!

 

Apples and oranges, you are comparing TA based system marketing to the whole TA. The OP asked whether banks use TA, not TA based retail trading systems

 

They trade of loads of information, just not RSI or Macd or similar, if you see inside a trades office on TV you'll notice there charts are pretty much always naked.

 

They have proprietary systems based on price performance=TA

 

Someone brought up the word 'lucky', now luck is very important. When you open a new position you never know what will actually happen, is this going to be the actual move or a fake one? So mini Black Swan events are very important to any trader, retail or pro, FA/TA/SA/VOODOO...

 

Without question, big banks use TA as their main analytical tool for trading and hedging. The most integral piece that they use is the Bollinger Bands indicator. One thing that is implemented and carries an even higher weight though is risk management. --This is the edge in trading. Controlling losses and letting winners run----- and the banks know this like no other entity.

 

lmao

 

Another solid bit of conventional TA are flags and the reason they do work is because so many entities are trading the same pattern, otherwise all you would be getting is absolutely random price behaviour, when they don't work, take it on the chin and move on, as Buy1Sell2 pointed out it's all within risk management.

My Mom tried trading stocks during the .com time, she lost on 4 consecutive trades and that was it for her - trading short term doesn't work

 

You see those circled 2 little histogram bars in MACD? In my experience when you find just 1 bar (best) traders' scanners jump at it, as this is one of the best signs of weakness or strength (the opposite formation). Bog standard old MACD. Check it out.