Says you. I've been a day trader for 12 years, fulltime, and I can tell you from my own experience that there are MANY ways to look at the same data as some one else and see new and/or different opportunities. It all comes down to the individual and their ability to interpret mkts. You don't NEED special or secret info, you just need to THINK creatively. I use simple charts, with specific price/volume and have an accurate method for finding intraday turning points. The same stuff that worked in 1999 is working today, the very same ways.
one thing you forgot... traders are not pompous and have learned (often the hard way) to be humble. They also do not make sweeping generalizations or submit that a certain dollar amount (i.e. 500K) is necessary before someone qualifies as a "trader." Further I would submit that many good and great traders did not start at the "top" and did not have 500K capitalization, or anywhere near that amount, from the jump. No offense but you sound as if you don't have a clue; what is your background to even make conclusions or generalizations? Are you a market researcher who took a statistically accurate survey OR are you just guessing or presuming. If someone opens a 25K account and doubles it twice by December is that a trader or a gambler? If another takes 500K and lose 10-15% by then, what is that individual?
Other people and I follow a system and never look at charts to predict any future event. Sure I will look at it, but certainly do not base my trading off charts reading since the rest of the world is looking at them too. You can look at them night and day interpert, think creatively before you hang them on your fridge if you feel so inclined, but in the end you are still neutral, long or short. It's that simple ! Almost everything written/published/sold about trading or finance is only noise when it comes about making you money starting with chart reading. If chart reading works everyone would do it and if everyone does it why not everyone is making money ? Because it does NOT work. What seems to work is to write a book or teach a seminar on chart reading Now going back to the OP most people entering the market are gamblers. Obviously because they "invest and read charts" instead of betting on ponies they think they are traders, but they really are gamblers.
wow. so charts absolutely don't work because everyone has them and then why doesn't everyone make succeed. !?' There is a convincing argument. So back in the 70-90s when I was using charts, someone forgot to tell me that they do not work. When I studied T/A at the CME, I guess all that was a waste of time. Fact is, tools just like medical instruments are only as good as the carpenter (or physician) using them.
@iceman1, Bad analogy with the doctor/carpenter because in the market your gain is someone else loss. Maybe you can teach the rest of the world how to read them so everyone can make money.
I read the book "Trading And Exchanges" by Larry Harris a little while back. I recommend it. He differentiates between informed and uninformed traders. Utilitarian traders are uninformed traders who obtain some benefit from the markets besides trading profits. For example hedgers. Speculators are informed traders who use information to predict future price changes more accurately than most other traders can. Their superior information gives them an advantage when they trade. Speculators trade because they expect to make money. Here's what he say about gamblers: