Surf, further to my above observation, I think it's fascinating how you went from the radical fringe element of TA (Gann quackery?!) to completely anti-TA in one fell swoop, with no stops in between. Just another example of all-or-nothing thinking, which is considered to be a classic cognitive distortion by CBT practitioners.
How to deal with every day facts when you see a pattern, enter upon it and it gets complete as expected often enough to provide consistent profits?
Have you read the Zanger interview? http://www.chartpattern.com/cf/images/new/articles/traders-world-2010.pdf How do you explain his success? 450 subscribers in his chatroom.... No, I meant his trading success....
Surf is good for the banter even if he is selective in what he replies to, but his journey interests me. I'd like to know how deep his TA knowledge went and how he became a TA atheist. I think Surf is infatuated with the idea of price drivers and what they can do. Algo Price Driver have a very limited forward vision and a good hit on the market cannot be hidden from the TA. I have no problem with anyone not believing in TA, but if they used TA they can show how it fails because it failed them.
I would think that algos using past and current price as an input for either entry or exit timing fall within the purview of TA.
If think about it, the orders placed in the book are "past" too, because we all know they do get played and pulled regularly. In this sense the only "future" data would be surveillance after traders at top institutions to see in advance, when they are really about to start buying or selling and how much. If that is what price drivers are, I believe they work, but not sure about other aspects.
Interesting observation. However, you are wrong, there were many stops in between. See Gann Channel turning into Surfer Death Channel as one example of the evolution. What's a CBT practitioner? Yes, I had an unusual, in retrospect, introduction to the markets. My first mentor was an astro finance, Gann practioner. He turned his 10k college fund into over a million using Gann and astro-- I traded along side him with a $2k cash credit card cash advance--in the option market---this was back in the late 80's early 1990s-- we were buying sports cars and houses---- we couldn't afford--- truly believing we cracked the market's code and the cashstream was never going to end. Then, my friend started making mistakes. losing money and acting more and more bizarre. It was never the method that was wrong, it was his interpretation of it-- he then vanished-- I haven't seen my high IQ, but fooled by randomness friend since 1994. I have some stories that would blow your mind from this era.....about the characters and weird crap I experienced on the "dark side". As you can imagine, this initial solid success sent me on the road to learning how markets really work. This is how I reached this level in my evolution as a trader. surf
Yes, you are correct to a degree. Price Drivers are a combination of factors. Regarding orders It's understanding who placed them and the odds of them sticking prior to the trade taking place that partially provides the price driver effect when short term trading...
You need to say this out loud to know just how ridiculous it really sounds. No wonder you swore off TA. Baby meet bathwater.