Surely preference must have little to do with it. Some approaches must be superior to others. It might be very hard to establish though. If it was a matter of preference, it would imply that all approaches are equally successful or not as the case may be and we know that this is not the case. The question is how to establish which approach increases the odds of success.
How can you use fundamental analysis in short term trading. Does the local/market maker use fundamentals??
Sentiment, Psychology, Statistical Arbitrage, Zero Cost Option Constructs etc. TA and FA are from the Stone Age!
Good question, and I'd like to know the answer as well. When it comes to trading firms, banks, etc. I agree with you. But for a small retail fry like myself, I really believe personal preference plays a big part.
I hear what you are saying but I thought techincal analysis covered Psychology, Statistical Arbitrage, Zero Cost Option Constructs etc and any other factors affecting the price hence the adage "its all in the price"
the 2 tls tools I use are the Standard Error Channel and Fibonacci tool while MAs can be considered tls, indicators can't project Price and Time targets which is one of the major functions of tls in my methodology however it depends what and how you're trading since from my pov the application of tls is manual, trying to draw tls on thousands of stocks is impractical even with auto tl indicators if you're trading futures intraday here's one thread illustrating the combined use of tls and indicators: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113044
From your statement, I imply that you prefer trendlines over indicators. For discretionary trading, I think it is a matter of preference. A discretionary trader will use whichever he has the most success with, whatever the reasons may be. I also prefer trendlines. I found that indicators easily distract me from analyzing intraday action. Even volume analysis, often not thought of as an indicator, can be too noisy for my own trading. When I just focused on bar charts, drew some well-thought out trendlines, and watched how the market reacted around these levels, I started to have greater success in reading the short-term action and picking my spots to trade these moments.