============= Drew478; 1] Probably 7 or 8 important issues here; will aim @addressing several of them. 1.7] Since you work for the bid ask bunch, need to learn as much as you can for sure; & like Whitster don't care much for MAcd. Some do. 1.8] However your nickname Drew4784 may suggest a personality that likes to draw trendlines,ma, or PSAR principal; actually prefer Interactive Brokers to draw my moving averages & so on. Drew ,Esignal has drawn some ma well also. 2.0] Eventually even giving it your best effort/excellence; maybe like Mark Weinstein/Mike Masters, work your own company. ============================================= 2.50]And with all due respect to a 50 day moving average[dma]; just don't get to use it that often anyway , with underlying stock or derivatives. Like it anyway. Wisdom is profitable to direct. Actually use PSAR principal more than a mechanical indicator. Probably could earn more money simply specializing in bid/ask; they could rightly tell you don't use PSAR,[parabolic stop and reverse] then don't use it. Believe it or not saw a rather mature Bright Trading Company ad; with about 20 or so days data on it with a moving average. Simply enjoy visual candlecharts,ma & so on in home office.
and fwiw, we need to define terms here price/tape, etc. *is* TA TA is the study of PRICE price can be placed in a 2 dimensional format and plotted vs. time this is called a CHART it can be also plotted in different ways P&F charts for instance, or tick charts (which plot price in trade clumps vs. time clumps), etc, etc. but these are ALL TA you are saying you think you like TA better than the time/sales stuff, etc. BOTH are TA if you are studying price/volume, or any derivative thereof, you are studying TA Fundamental analysis studies the underlyinjg reasons for (theoretically) price to be where it is, and predicting where it will go based on is the price "fairly valued" now vs. where it should be, etc. but clearly, if you are studying price/volume, HOWEVER you choose to do it - tape, charts, no charts, P&F charts, candlesticks, MACD, moving averages, etc - you are studying TA fwiw, TA is a derivative OF fundamental analysis. because many of the prime movers are buying based on their perceptions of value, etc. using fundamentals. those "tracks" are then seen in a study of price/volume over time. TA attempts to study this derivatve OF fundamental decisions to arrive at a decent prediction/ analysis so, don't think if u are studying time/sale, you are not studying TA. you most definitely are
uuuhhh....whats the difference between the tape and level 2?? I was under the impression that they were the same thing basically. -spxdes
He probably meant read the tape by looking at Time and Sales as opposed to just watching the level 2. Although I prefer to read the tape by watching the prints through the level 2 box, rather than T/S because T/S seems to be slightly slower, at least through Esignal.