It is not definitions that are missing about TA. I would say that it is the study of chart patterns. Not everyone uses it. It's a minority among others. Then ? Facts (more or less) precede theories. However you are begging the question... Can you reach that "It works" conclusion? TA has multiple rationales, empirical studies, That conclude for and against your conclusion. But don't stop and don't even bother about that. Make your own judgement, find an overlooked bug. A hackers won't stop because it's said impossible. Let they think it is so. And make it by yourself. Trading is also a form of art of exploitation. Like everything involving progress is. It's not about average but outliers. Not the majority but only a few. Do not ask those kind of questions, What matters is what you can do with it. Not what people make or tell you they make. You have to learn to discover, try it by yourself. You either want to be the expert, or ... the sucker.
It is a method of using chart patterns, support and resistance levels and may or may not include indicators to synthesize a read on the market and direction of the market or stock, currency, etc.. It is thought to work because it takes into account everything that is known by everyone in the market as it shows up in how price moves. If someone knows something about a stock that is not commonly known it will often times show up in the charts first because price movement will give the read on the market. By "reading" how price moves based on these you can make a higher probability trade. It is not a magic box in that every time you see X pattern you trade.
Well, statisticians must have become millionaires if it is true that the statistical instruments (ema, macd, etc.) based technical charts really gives insights into the market They are just for analytical/academic purpose! Feel free to visit my threads: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/trading-knowledge-vs-trading-skillset.298662/ http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...ay-strategy-for-index-futures-options.298637/
Its actually unbelievably simple: For every period of price timeseries, there are tendencies that traders want to exploit by trading. If you buy at a price and sell later in a profitable direction, you may profit from trading. TA is simply one of the most direct legal approaches as it involves actual prices and volumes. It includes quant methods on price and volume data, since by definition TA encompasses all analysis on them, being an evolving field of study. TA is not a trading methodology, so does nothing without the trader. People use TA for analysis in infinite ways believing price to be the most direct foundation for trading results. Arguments against TA are often mistaken and emotional, so there is much confusion about the topic. TA neither works nor doesnt work. Dont trust opinions without verification.
What is Technical Analysis? Why does it work?" Generally speaking...and I kind of emphasize generally...The trend is your friend. But it's kind of slightly more complicated than that. if trading were as easy as following a line like a coloring or tracing book...then everyone would be walking around with a million dollars in their pockets
I propose to copy and paste all posting from the previous 1000 threads about the same subject. Will save us a lot of time in posting and also in reading as we read it already before 1000 times. ET becomes more and more a website where you can find anything ... except good or sensible advice from people who have some knowledge about trading. I have no motivation anymore to post and even reading becomes a challenge. Should I still read huge amounts of garbage to find every now and then a good posting, that was not posted before at least 5 times?
That bad day today, huh? Am feeling grumpy today at least. Some of us are new to this forum and some are new to trading. It's to be expected, and it was so in times past as well. Maybe you have learnt something over the years you'd like to share, or maybe you've read enough forum posts? Anyways, the world doesn't revolve around you. Whatever past you remember, is your subjective memory only. And, as long as I see people being wrong on the internuts, I'll keep postin', until I don't care anymore. Hint: Censorship and moderator manipulations usually works wonders to both lower user activity and to agitate the extremes.