I have found over this last year that the less input I get from the outside world, the better off my trading is. I long ago gave up any financial media such as CNBC, Mad Money, etc... Now I do not watch any Youtuber gurus, take alert services, etc... I feel that if I am forming my own opinions, finding my own trades, etc... I am a better trader. I also have 100% accountability to myself and cannot blame anyone for my results. try it out. Turn off all outside influences and see how you do. This is precisely why Warren Buffet resides in Omaha and not NYC. Same was true of Jessie Livermore and many others.
Financial news has little to nothing to do with consistent day trading, particularly futures other than major news potentially causing stability issues or to be aware of set time reports like 8:30 10:00 2:00 and etc that cause massive volatility . So I agree there. Alert services are generally email, text, twitter or etc and those are lagging or not clear enough to use any type of size on, or really use at all. I agree there. Accountability I somewhat agree, but I take it one step further. Because if you press the button you're responsibility for the trade, looking to blame someone else, regardless of factors is just an excuse because you don't have the mental fortitude to accept responsibility. That seems harsh, but it's true. So I mainly agree, except blankly labeling all outside influences, as discussed for me personally it's greatly increased and improved my trading. Most outside influences suck, have no clue what they are trying to accomplish and are distractions. So I would argue it's not the outside influences, it's the quality of them. But I am not about to debate your personal experiences, I understand that's an exercise in futility and it's perfectly fine for us to have different opinions and personal experiences. That's life so I have no issues there or with the majority of what you say. Hopefully you find the path to full time.
Now imagine going one step further and getting rid of charts, market timing, and market direction. Boom! Life changing when you begin thinking in terms of probabilities.
funny you mention that... I used to have a bunch of indicators on my charts,,, now it is just price.. the only thing that matters
If it's effecting you negatively of course get rid of it. Why get rid of an extreme net positive factor though? Sure for you it may not be, but for others it is possible to use charts in a very effective way and also exclude exact timing and even getting macro market direction right isn't necessarily required either.
The main thing I use is PA system based on a blank chart with no indicators. So, I totally agree how powerful and simple it can be. However, the indicator thing is a general fallacy. First of all how most people code, use and the concepts they apply to their indicators are generally very poor. Secondly an indicator can just be derived from PA. There's no way a human can keep up with a program designed to track certain things and patterns. Sure maybe on a singular chart, they could some what compete. But for example you can create an indicator to track a certain pattern and alert you to it over multiple different products, charts and time frames. The main argument I have against indicators and would agree with is information overload. But if you have your base PA understanding down, any additional information fed to you that is high quality without over loading you is just an additional edge. If you're saying you can derive an edge from PA via your human brain, but that no indicator based on PA can derive an edge that's a tough sell.
I like the way this Concinnity (the skillful and harmonious arrangement or fitting together of the different parts of something) individual thinks...clear, straightforward, commonsense, respectful, rational communication. If it's alright, I'd like to include the lion's share of the above thoughts and ideas in my book on Numerical Price Prediction, likely in a section titled something like: "Indicators vs. Price Action."
Yeah, I don't think you need my permission anyways. It's a public form, include whatever you want. But I certainly have no issues with it.
Yes it is not either-or, to the extreme. Use what works, not use what you hope works. Sometimes when something does not work, like a lagging indicator, people think they need a different lagging indicator or 3 of them and then it WILL work. This is an example of going around in circles and not being able to think outside a context. To me, indicators can help with the scaling issues after the PA prints. A fixed scale helps, but so many times the scale (X or Y axis), will scale to fit the window so you can get the full historical context on the screen. An indicator can provide a scale more independent from the XY. For Algos work, you are constantly creating a "context". Price, time, or numerous others. These should be considered the backbone of "indicators". I.e. Context matters. Perhaps if people paid more attention to this type of "CONTEXT", they might get more traction in the PL And then there is the actual "as it happens and how it happens" that PA provides which is also representable in an "indicator", it is just not as easy to create, and interpret as the canned indicators based on strict historical price and time.