I think when allot of people refer to tape reading they are talking about real time analysis and decisionmaking based on price action, relative prices, and price reaction to catalyst/news events. It is, "reading the mind of the market" based on what the market is doing. If one is looking at charts to do this or not.. I am not sure if it matters. Some may have a stricter definition of tape reading that involves looking at volume, time and sales, order book, etc. However this does not seem to be universal.
Seeing it IS anecdotal. Anything short of a scientific analysis across a representative spectrum is anecdotal.
Saw an interview of Larry Williams where he said he doesn't believe in using charts. He must be wired differently. I gotta have em.'
wrong. peter borish used charts to analyse the market, not to trade. there is a big difference. there were not even "real time charts" as we know them today in the late 80's. although institutions may have had something rudimentary--- they certainly were not available to the retail crowd. surf
niether does Jim Rogers and a host of others. Read "winner take all" for an expose on the chart illusion. surf
You have no idea what you are talking about. Paul hired Peter Borish to do regression analysis and correlation coefficient stuff in order to see if there were any strong correlations in various inter-market relationships, ie. Crude vs the USD. Paul also had Peter do some work on cycles, as well. Paul traded off of charts. He looked at various commodities for pattern recognition and then sought to exploit the "analog". Peter helped provide some actual statistical data regarding those inter-market analogs. And for those of us that are near 50 years old, we fondly remember a charting software called MarketView. It was the first big thing after the days of using the Quotetron. And yes, that is what Paul used on his big Monitor next to his desk in the video. How do I know all of this? Because I used to sit in his chair on the weekends doing my T/A as well as hang out on his couch in his office after I came up off the trading floor.
Have some self respect here Surf. With all due respect, you're spewing your mental diarrhea on the wrong board. Your interviews are probably guys like Victor Niederhoffer, guy who does not believe in trends yet secretly follows trend trading by selling naked puts in uptrends. The running joke in trading circles: When do you know the trend has changed to a down-trend? when Victor blows up. Maybe he should look at a chart once in a while. You may want to add Linda ( Raschke ) to your interview list and then tell her she's wrong trading from her charts.