I am actually more inclined to think the difficulty is not with using TA, it is in day trading. Simply put, it is probably the toughest way to make a buck in the trading universe. I reckon a lot of struggling TA day traders would be profitable if they would switch to swing trading. It is what made the difference for me. Alas, those darned charts are pretty seductive. Even today, I look at them and sigh. I don't go to casinos, but if I'm ever in the mood I'll take a grand and have a punt on CL. Same thrill and probably same result, ie casino wins.
Came across this thread, flipped immediately to the last page, and saw * Jack Hershey * Stock777 * MarketSurfer * and smirked, assembled together ET's top traders I love this site for its irony and humor originating from blatant subversion of reality. Full of day dreamers and wannabees (seriously a guy with 6500 posts (!!!!) makes a joke of himself by trying to give others the impression he belongs?). Its humor and the 0.5% quality content that keep me coming back.
Just showing how reality and the TA folks perception of reality are truly two different things. TA is the wrong road to follow, proven again and again. However, the proponents keep pushing it with very little challenge. I am the challenge. surf
could not help it ;-) while math is critical in some areas of trading but certainly is math not behind 70% of the volume. If you ever worked/traded at anything more than a bucket prop shop then you would know that most high-ultra high frequency algorithms hardly are based on a single mathematical function. It really is a complete game of latencies. You would lose critical microseconds if you tried to compute anything. The rest constitutes blocks and program trades and they hardly peruse heavy math either.
I don't disagree. Just like a casino, the markets are <i>designed</i> to take your money on an intraday basis. TA is what seduces one to think they can beat the market short term-- in fact, it makes it look easy. I am sick and tired of these aliases leading noobs astray and down the wrong path. I do believe the market can be beaten in the short and long term, but TA is the markets way, ( for god sake FX dealers who win when you lose promote TA heavily!) which means proponents of TA as a complete system will LOSE. They just lose again and again. But to make themselves feel better they come on here like winners despite the fatal flaws in their sometimes long rhetoric to say simple things.
I estimate 80% of your market calls here on ET are TA based, sounds like you are caught in your own hypocritical mindset.
I use TA to describe the call. The calls themselves have nothing to do with TA, except on occassion to fine tune an entry after direction and timing are already set. TA does have some use in a contextual way, also, but never to use strictly to make intraday trading decisions as the proponents here teach. surf
It doesn't "work" per se by itself, but it can provide a context to help with decisions along with other inputs. surf