Unclear. You appear to use trendlines then you appear to be against them? Yes,it is a game. A game of wits and skill. Like any game you sometimes lose and you sometimes win regardless of the tools you use. Casinos certainly lose, but on average, they gonna win or be put out of business. The good thing about price action is that it shows, to some degree, what all the players are doing. Their reasons and motivations for the most part are unknown and cannot be known. Too many participants.
I would beg to differ. Most breakouts of channels in either direction fail and price promptly gets pulled back into the channel. That indicates support and or resistance. All channels are trendlines. Therefore trends do imply support and resistance UNTIL a sustainable B.O. on either side succeeds and a new trend is established.
I use them to the extent that I note where other people have likely entered and where they are likely to have put their stop. I do not enter a trade when price hits a trendline as I said sometimes they work sometimes they dont.
In general whatever creates a ceiling is resistance. Whatever creates a floor is support. There are several ideas...concepts..imaginations about why or what or how ceilings or floors are created. Some may be valid...some not..That ceiling or that floor can be horizontal or diagonal. For instance, in the case of a normal symmetrical triangle they are both diagonal and are reducing down to a tighter and tighter range. All triangles are a range of sort and all have ceilings and floors and most B.O. fail until one succeeds. Most B.O. attempts will get pulled back into the range. When a B.O. does succeed price will many times then come back to near the apex and then after that have either a continuation of the previous trend or a reversal and a new trend start. Price is always in a channel..sideways..diagonal...and those channels can be big or tight and horizontal..wedge..ascending/descending/symmetrical/contracting/expanding triangles. They all have ceilings and floors with resistance and support areas.
thank you then how one defines the ceiling or the floor? any single spike up is a ceiling? any spike down is a floor? or two spikes thru which one draws a line? or three? what defines the contour of the ceiling? but more importan when the term support resistance is used it imho assumes that there are counter (buying or selling) forces in play at that price that prevent the price from going further do not you think that to assume that there are forces behind each reversal is too optimistic? what if there is just an exhaustion in buying o selling?... followed by the fall of rise or prolonged sideways movement is it reasonable to call those areas support or resistance if in realty there is no support or no resistance behind them ? what i am trying to tell is that there are areas where price stops or reverses itself without any support resistance... one of-course can draw a line through that points and call it a ceiling/floor (another word for support resistance but the problem with that line is - it does not hold... it's not supposed to... then how to define validity? i think it can only be horizontal (as i said at that price), and one can see how much implications starts form disallowing the angled S/R... from here your example of the triangle is not an example of angled support an resistance but of a horizontal one in the bigger time frames when the spikes throw which you draw you angled lines in the smaller time frame are insignificant shadows of bars in the bigger time frame in the attempt to the penetrate 2 horizontal support and resistance understood but in light what i said earlier not all channels are within support resistance
I think you misunderstood me. I did not say all channels ...triangles are "in support or resistance" rather they all contain support/resistance nevertheless a triangle on a 5 minute chart (which contains support ..resistance) may be within a horizontal support resistance in a bigger time frame.