most TA is worthless. That is not how to learn. Supp/Res & trend yes, but most of the rest is garbage. There is nothing wrong with starting with a profitable service to learn.
I agree with mymini... get yourself a bloomberg terminal and trade one lots on YM. Alternatively, subscribe to Hershey's thread and draw a finite, but large number of trendlines until one fits with your bias, and start swinging!
I would think sitting in front of tradestation and trading one lots while drawing trendlines and s/r is the way to go, as opposed to Bloomberg. I think you are spoiled lol. TS is free with 10 roundtrips and $5.00 RT commissions compared to a couple grand for Bloomie. But point is made
I've tried both rooms and I think PureTick is much better. I have become a much more disciplined trader since joining PureTick and my equity curve has improved a lot. Plus, the head trader is there EVERY day mentoring/teaching. Carter's book is good and their setups are decent, but, the TTM guys spend most of their time traveling and selling these days. I think you can learn everything they do in their room on your own.
Most of the trading books are available used or new on Half.com - sometimes for fractions of the published price and one can resell them for about the same price as one bought them. Basically the cost of checking out a book is the cost of media mail. Occasionally some of the TTM products come up on Ebay for fractions. I actually bought a system and got lucky and re sold it for more. GC