put your hands in your pocket ,and rattle them. When you haven't got a set of balls to take risk ,you look for historical data and set ups to bet on.
Two things come to mind: 1) Inside information, illegal but its not TA 2) Studying fundamentals and going for value
interesting idea for a thread. I think as a retail trader, there really isn't really any 'alternative'. There's fundamental analysis of course. We all know about that. Just as many have blew their accounts trying to be a 'fundamentals trader' as have blew up from looking at candlestick patterns. There's orderbook trading/ learning to read the DOM etc, but in my eyes, that's just a form of TA. I am certain that there are far superior methods to any of the above, but they are not available to little guys like us on this forum. Having accepted this sad reality a while back now, I revisited TA with a new frame of mind and, touch wood, I've not had a losing month in quite a while now (not so say that i'm doing fantastic or anything) Still, i'm all ears. Lets see how this thread develops....
Blowed up real good! <object width="480" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uHkvD7-u7y8?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uHkvD7-u7y8?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
Considering how the TA threads always, always get invaded by those who not only know TA doesn't work but know better ways to beat the market, I expect this will be one of the best and busiest threads on ET. I for one am here to learn.
Buy shares in small high tech private companies and wait if you are lucky you hit the next aapl or goog.