Not really. Those of us who are good at taking I.Q. tests just find it easy to recognize patterns and analyze situations.
The wealthiest people on earth are not traders nor will the wealthiest people on earth ever come from pure trading profits of their own money. You make more money over the long-run owning a major business/company and running it. Markets have limitations (LTCM became the market) while the owner of Wal-Mart can just keep making more and more money as long as the business continues to grow.
I don't care if something works or not according to someone else. The only thing i monitor is the amount of money in my bank account. If it increases it proves that what i do is functioning. What it is, how it is called and if others agree that it works doesn't matter. I never made a dime by convincing others that i was right. Discussing with others about the correct definition of any word is absurd also. I don't see any advantage in it for my returns .
well, they are "traders" of differing sorts.... my point is, if TA actually was increasing ones odds consistently over 50/50, there would be many many more much wealthier TA practioners--- if there are any, they are very very few and fall into the good black swan category. surf
That is incorrect and the point of many of our posts. TA does not do anything on its own. It is a set of tools that the individual uses to make an analytical decision and it is the individual that decides when the odds are in their favor. Your comment is a common mistake where people expect TA to do the work and produce the actual results and it is just not the case. TA is a tool and the performance of the trader is how they use the tool since all TA does is put out data. It is like saying an earnings report alone increases one's odds at making money. Of course it does not, it is the skill of the trader to analyze the earnings and use his or her own experience and skill to understand the trends or patterns and trade off of it. The earnings are just data on their own. Same with moving averages or support or resistance or any other TA tool. EDIT: and I overlooked the point made by the below poster. win rates are not important, it is money made v. money lost on average. A win rate of 20% might suck but not if you make 10 points per win and lose 2 points per loss. You are still net ahead.
Honestly, your TA sould not even raise your winner/loser ratio above 50%.... Hell, you could have 3 winners out of 10 trades and make money. What TA does (using TA) is helping you keep consistent. When you have a pattern and trade it consistently, you only have to be disciplined and apply money management rules suitable for your method.
spike500 >Discussing with others about the correct definition of any word >is absurd also. I don't see any advantage in it for my returns . I fully agree with that, and I normally never comment. However, when it comes to TA, those of us who really 'eat this stuff up' tend to come to its defense when people less in the know say that it is of no practical use. Sort of gets to you hearing such so often. We see it as a guy flapping his arms and saying that if he can't fly, birds can't either.
i understand that TA is an unquantifiable art. if it was ANYTHING else it could be programed and would have been totally exploited. there are teams of quants who are consistently looking for quantifiable edges--- none are found in TA. like it or not. surf
I don't agree. If someone proves that TA works, THAT person will become wealthy. If you don't know how he does it, you will not become wealthy although TA works. Only the person for who it works will get rich, because he knows how it works. There must be things that work, because my number of winning trades is around 90% (based on hunderds of trades). Without a system it should be around 50%.