I came here seeking advice knowing that I would get some good advice and some bad advice. I have to do the best I can to decipher between the two. Having a limited amount of knowledge as a beginner it's not always cut and dry. I might make some mistakes in my deciphering process, but I hope that my net result is beneficial.
Why does Warren Buffet give us anything in the Wall Street Journal? Not everybody wants models and bottles all the time.
The most common reply I get from people (mostly academics) who write books is that they wrote a book, because they didn't like the other ones out there. Take that for what it's worth.
"Talking his book" means that he wants you to buy what he's short and short what he's long to get out of his positions.
I think what you are missing is that trading is not an academic subject. You do not read books and seek advice and use logic to interpret what you read and hear. You dig into it yourself. No one who knows anything useful will share more than generalities with you because to reveal a system is to kill its profitability. If I am an academic cybernetics expert, I increase the common weal by sharing what I know. If I am a trader, I decrease my own weal by sharing. By the way, you are as dumb as a fucking post. I doubt that I could teach you anything even using a sledgehammer.
Where did I say somebody would tell me their system? Even though Jack Hershey is on here sharing his. That's given mixed reviews. Anyways, I think what the book is giving me are some general concepts. The author of the book states on page 4: "The focus of this book is to explain the basic principles and techniques for reacting to the market. We do not attempt to predict the market, nor do we provide you with the Holy Grail or promise a method that will make you millions overnight. Instead, we want to provide you with a background, basic tools, and techniques that you will need to be a competent technical analyst." He states on page 7: "we hope the book will serve as a stepping-stone to your study and exploration of the field of technical analysis."
Well the author says that there are 2 types of technical analysts, those who predict and those who react, and that the focus of the book is on reactive technical analysis. He describes this as "the trader is watching the market and reacting when a certain technical condition is met." He describes predictive technical analysts as those who generally sell their ideas and make predictions on future market moves.