Ha, if only. Whilst the same patterns do form in different markets, each market is moved by a) different factors (fundamentals) b) different participants Who knows which of these two is the more important factor in explaining the behaviour of any particular instrument; it's impossible to say. But I also have the same experience with ES and forex. I've been looking at 5 minute charts for so long on ES that I can get some kind of handle some of the time as to what the market is up to. The trick (not one that I've completely learnt) is only trade at those times that you really do have confidence that you have that handle correctly. Forex however, that's a bitch, because it seems far more random to me. I've seen it said that it's far more technical i.e. *not* random but hell, my win rate with forex is p*ss poor (doesn't stop me trying though....bad trader). At least ES trades most of its volume in a short, fixed 6 1/2 hour window. You can trade the out-of-hours session if you want but not a lot will happen usually volatility-wise. Forex, on the other hand....near 24 hour trading....3 centres (Europe/US/Asia) ....sometimes the moves will come in Asia, sometimes London, sometimes, US...jeez, that's a real killer.
The long/short ratio difference contributes a lot to forex behaving differently in my opinion. Equities move in long uptrends followed by fast selloffs.
"They" (whoever "they" are) say that stocks trend only 20% to 25% of the time; the rest of the time they are range trading. Not saying that's true, but you can make a lot of money on non-directional movement; I think the probability of success is higher in the long run.