Well, i am in total agreement where a "SYSTEM" can be thought out, tested in battle, refined, tweaked and then coded, then (with todays technology) automatically executed. Fine and dandy, i myself am working on such a deal now. But, for those of us that have progressed to this point in trading, where did we start? From nothing short of drawing, buying, eyeballing, tearing up, swearing them off, resurrecting the subscriptions etc, etc. all those charts. Let me say this as a given. If i never decided to read "Edwards and Magee" and SAW some value in it, i never would have been called a "DAYTRADER", not during the bubble, not after , not now. My daytrading efforts were reinforced with technical analysis from guys at the pits in Chi and further confirmed with jack Schwagers books and others. Technicals are not easily grasped, but they are like basic training to any special opps in the services. Basic training comes first, if that does not bust you out and you are tough enough, intelligent, enough, stupid enough, then you can get to the real disciplined special opps such as ranger, seal etc. BUT first you must get past the basic simple stuff....... I did both......