If you are trading very short term, you don't need indicators, since in very short term trading you must anticipate and using indicators you are waiting for a signal and therefore lagging the action of the market. Howard http://www.tapetactics.com
trade successfully using indicators, some people can trade successfully using the price action only, most cannot trade successfully at all... It does not matter what you use, but how.
Answer: NO Price and volume alone give me all I need to trade successfully. Although indicators are not worthless, I personally did not start to become consistently profitable until I stopped using them. But, to each his own.
Agree... there are too many traders that aren't good at using something and immediately assume nobody else will be good at using it... regardless if its price action alone methods or indicators. Think about it...these types of questions are consistently being asked here at EliteTrader... Do indicators work? Do MACD work? Do Stochastics work? Do Pivot Point Analysis work? Do s/r level analysis work? Do candlestick analysis work? Do level II analysis work? Do Time & Sales work? Do Market Depth analysis work? Do sector analysis work? Do chart patterns work? whatever. As always...those that couldn't use something successfully show up to say it doesn't work... the silly ones go as far to say it won't work for anybody else. I don't know how to program my VCR...it doesn't mean that everybody else won't be able. Further...if its an issue about which lags the market... both methods lag the market because both methods requires waiting for confirmation. The only time indicators or price action only methods don't lag the market is when traders...anticipate the market and take positions prior to any confirmation. In fact...I've never met a successful trader via either methods that consistently takes positions prior to any price action only method confirmation or prior to any indicator confirmation... I would consider trading without any kind'uv confirmation is gambling. (please don't start a debate about trading versus gambling) Been there...done that. Something else...many traders have different definitions of what is a price action only trader. For example...if I see someone calling themselves a price action only trader and they use volume... I don't consider them to be a price action only trader. I've only met personally one true price action only trader that had nothing but price on his chart... a candlestick trader with no trendlines nor anything else. I tried it...couldn't do it (losses) and found it to be extremely stressful trading. He understood that candlesticks themselves represented s/r levels and their own form of pivot analysis. As usual...whatever works for you...keep using it. Thus, traders that are successful at one or the other or both... usually understand their strengths and weakness of whatever method their using. And both price action only methods and indicators have lots of weakness. I use both methods (indicators and price action only)... neither has an advantage over the other for me. Traders that did not take the time to find out why something doesn't work for them while working for others... really doesn't understand how different traders are from one trader to the next. NihabaAshi
It is possible to take the topics that define econometrics to create a view of aids for success in making money. The four topics and their associated stuff are listed below: direct: price and volume: indirect: indicators inferential: market analysis data substitution: alarm systems and POA's. Obviously you can't be successful in econometric planning if you do not use the whole nine yards. Most people go through a series fo plateaux in their careers of success. You can see here in the posts where some of the poeple have parked and term what they do as successful. For me, I just look at the market operating point as a cell and watch the market move from cell to cell. It moves when all the alternative paths but one are blocked by the flaw that prevents movement in that direction. My approach is to make money continually with an personal efficiency that is responsive to the potential of the market at any time. My definition of success in equities is 10% net every 6 to 8 days and about 50 times that in intraday trading of futures commodities indexes.
I personally feel that: a) price action in all cases is vital b) there are positive returns to a moderate use of indicators c) there are negative returns to an excessive use of indicators (as measured by the number of indicators being used)...
Indicators just confuse me and I make mistakes. I just use candles of the price and some lines occasionally so that I can see where I am in relation to other candles. Natalie