How does one move beyond technical analysis?

Discussion in 'Trading' started by Kovacs, Feb 4, 2008.

  1. Kovacs

    Kovacs

    I'm not saying technical analysis is useless as I've made money from it.

    It's just now that every time I want to develop something new, I'm automatically thinking in terms of R & S, volume, moving averages, indicators, etc. I'm locked into that mode of thinking

    I'm looking for a different mental framework from which to derive new strategies for daytrading.

    Can you share a few paths to investigate?
     
  2. naked1

    naked1

    congrats on your new eyesight

    you are one of the few, don't stop now
     
  3. How about relative strength? either stock vs stock, sector vs sector, or vs market index?

    I don't have any specific advice on how to approach this, just throwing out a thought for another way to look at trading.
     
  4. If you're interested in setting aside analysis of price based on the idea of running current price through an algorithm of some kind, you're left with only one thing, right?

    That would be price itself.

    Perhaps you are talking about techniques which involve correlation of things like VIX or TICK with price. Or maybe you are talking about bid/ask size or T & S analysis.

    If you've never spent a few weeks watching price with nothing else on the screen, you shoudl try it. A lot of the guys on here who actually seem to be long-term profitable daytraders look at price alone.
     
  5. hmmm how bout price & volume
    but in all honesty - I don't pay much attention to the volume
    all price

    pivots --- so far not losing but not winning big
     
  6. dozu888

    dozu888

    ok, first of all, be honest with yourself. it is useless, otherwise you wouldn't be looking for something different.

    follow the advice about watching price for a few months. and ask yourself, what is the story the market is telling me today?
     
  7. you might want to get an interest into trading multiple strategies on the same instrument / different markets.


    you still have to design strategies and use TA (of course moving outside of "pure" TA doesnt mean you stop using it) but now the goal isnt to have one strategy that works OVERALL, its to have several strategies designed to take advantage of different markets conditions, simultaneously.

    im saying that because this factor greatly increased my overall profit and the money gathering is now done much more regularly and smoothly than my old ''one system / one market" approach

    and if on top of that you manage to automate those different systems (theres so much a human can do) youre golden

    that alone should keep you busy for a few months/years
     
  8. May I suggest something a bit more esoteric?

    Intuition.

    Feel last big trade? Did you assume that we open up a bit and then keep trending? Well then next time log it. Feel it again, log it. Keep doing that until you realize a pattern..or not.

    You may learn something about yourself. You may not. But in the very least it is a way to kill time in between signals. Like a chess game against yourself.

    Good trading to you.
     
  9. TA is an art. Understand price and orderflow/market internals.

    Will help you to become more well-rounded.

    Markets move on supply and demand. Not indicators. IMO 80% of TA is just smoke and mirrors for the average investor.

    Remember...even TA that seems abstract (and not correlated to normal market support/resistance) can be useful because of it's "self-fulfillment" by traders.

    Find a directional "indicator" for yourself. Understand targets based on S&R (and whether they're broken) and where the market is most likely to go based on limited resistance.

    If you're fluent with TA, you may be best off trying to come up with a mechanical strategy as well.
     
  10. TA is not a mental framework per se. You can do TA under different mental frameworks. You can try AT - Analyis of Technicals - instead of TA.

    Alex
     
    #10     Feb 4, 2008