Ain't so simple as it sounds. 1. What is the timeframe. 2 What is your definition of a swing/pivot/high/low. 3. Is there a preceding structure/pattern/#bars, etc. as a prerequisite? 4. What would make a potential point void? 5. If using hh or hl or lh or ll, what are the parameters for those? 6. What is your lookback period? etc. etc. bla, bla, bla. Nothing new here. Good luck.
True, no one knows the outcome of price movement at any time -> I agree True, support/ resistance levels are frequent turning points. -> I agree, and price tend to stay longer and whipsaw in those level due to the turf between long & short for obvious reason (all people know this level) True, you can be profitable playing those areas, not by predicting direction, but letting the direction taken, take you for the ride. -> Disagree. Due to whipsaw nature of those lines, more likely you will get stop out (regardless you play reverse o breakout trade at those levels) before you got the "free ride" to next price level. For example, you will get stop out for three time before the "ride" happen, and your risk/reward is 1/2, so you still loss. I know NoDoji will disagree on this.
1. There is no "free ride" 2. If you trade through chop and get continually stopped out at full stop, shame on you. 3. You never know how far price will run, so 1/2 is meaningless. Again, it is an art.
Oh yeah, "Art", while most of the TA here claim the "high probability" setup in S/R which refer to Math&Science, you are saying it is "Art" ? "Art" is something " it will different from case to case basic, ..yesterday I think this setup is ok but not for today because I don't feel right.. I don't trade today because I don't like the chart today.." "Art" is based on the personal feeling, "luck" or aka "gambling" without any scientific data. If you are the real expect in TA, why you ask the fundamental question in this thread ? http://elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=277421
Knowing how/where/when to draw a trendline is definitely part Art. You know this if you draw and redraw trendlines every day, every 4H! The TL needs to make sense from somewhere, originate/terminate, e.g. from/to an SR level...or perhaps around a price driver event horizon. : D
Yes. Unless stringent rules on how to draw them are used, trend lines tend to be highly subjective and subject to the imagination of the painter. Trend lines never made sense to me as lines of precision anyway, both due to the nature of time based bars that are frequently used and how frequent they are overshot or undershot without a change in trend, which again, begs the question - do you draw a new trend line from that extreme? Horizontal lines, market or mathematically derived are at least objective and not subject to interpretation or imagination.
for me, trading with "art" means trading with feeling. There may be very few people who can "feel" what will happen in the market, that is kind of supernatural ability. I am not one of these few people in the world so I believe in math+stats trading system way.