I really want to understand technical analysis better. I was wondering if studying for the CMT test would be a good start? I know there are thousands of books related to technical analysis and some are better than others. I looked at the MTA website at the recommended reading list for all three levels of the CMT exams. I figured a good place to start learning technical analysis would be to read all the the books? http://www.mta.org/eweb/dynamicpage.aspx?webcode=body-of-knowledge
Save your time, money and future and study statistics and HFT algorithms. TA will get you nowhere unless you are lucky and spend up to 10 years gambling with your money until you learn what works and what doesn't only to find you that it doesn't in the next 10 years.
If you are not of the math/programming type-- read "trade like a hedge fund" by James Altucher-- if you are, follow goodgoings advice. Don't waste your time with TA, its tough to extract yourself from that rabbit hole. surf
that's a great list to use. i'd start w/ john murphy's book on technicals. if you want a website that can get you free books pm me (pls don't spend money on them when they're available for free).
Perhaps technical analysis IS worthless as your link indicates however a whole lot of people use it. In my opinion it would be worth learning if just to know what others are doing. I WILL read your link though this evening
Billions believe in Mohammed and the prophets-- doesn't make it work. However, if you insist on the mind poison, at least do it the right way-- Evidence Based Technical Analysis by David Aronson is the best place to start. surf
If you are planing to trade long-term, you need some fundamentals. For short-term and intra-day trading go ahead and learn. The more you learn the better it is. Just do not get excited when you see something exciting.
Here's 26 pages of book suggestions with thousands of posts to direct you to exactly what you are looking for... http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/searc...=4265705&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending For further confirmation look up Amazon's reviews where you will find every good book has lots of traders saying it was useless for them. Once you have completed that simple task you are ready for 10,000 hours to get to grips with, well most likely, everything that doesn't work. Then afterwards, if you are persistent, you can perhaps find what really works... or if you are like some others in the thread, you'll still be no further on. That's how easy the task ahead is. TA can be mastered, but there are few who can make it work. You may well be one of the successful ones. As an alternative short cut, get a mentor or at least read the threads of those on ET who have helped others to trade. The very best of good luck to you!