# 16. I don't know everything and am always learning more about the financial markets. The process of evolving is never ending as a student of the markets.
What marketsurfer's mentor says: What marketsurfer sees: What marketsurfer's mentor says: What fortydraws says: I do not recall having read any trend follower claim to know before hand the extent and duration of any potential future trend. So use a trailing stop - no Ph.D. required.
What he means is that there are periods of non-randomness, i think, but identifying these periods before they are over is not possible. They are only identifiable in hindsight therefore irrelevant to making decisions. Remembet, when i talk about markets being random, i am talking about for the practicality of trading -- its not a causality vs deterministic argument. Its a practical argument I don't disagree with you in total. But why not enter long if the market is going up and follow with a trailing stop. Short if the market is dropping, follow with a trailing stop???? I maintain by doing this your results will match or beat any "price action" or TA method that purports to tell you "when" to enter. surf
Well, if you go just that far, then I would say that perhaps the gap between what you think and the price action approach of a Jesse Livermore or Richard Wyckoff or Richard Schabacker is perhaps not as wide as you yourself might believe.
Interesting. Then why use charts at all? Just pick some time frame-- for example, if at the end of a 15 minute time frame, price is higher than the start, go long. Or end of a day , or whatever.
Let's agree first as to what charts depict. Charts are merely one way of recording, organizing, and presenting data. I'm sure your mentor, for example, has created and used charts over the course of his academic career. I know many (most?) message board posters seem to imbue their charts with a life of their own and meanings they are sure exist independently of their own minds. But, imo, that is too much. All charts do, imo, is record transaction data. I would assume that you too would agree that that is all a chart really does - record data. Agree? "Price being higher now" is of course relative to where price was 15 minutes ago, or a day ago, or whatever. So what you propose is still data dependent. And it does not matter, imo, whether that data came to be known by you through watching a time and sales window, or watching a trading DOM, or a periodic phone call from your broker, or viewing a scrolling electronic ticker on your Bloomberg machine, or, for that matter, a chart. Agree? I'm just looking for common ground here. I'm not looking to change your or anyone else's view. I am curious to see just how far apart you might be from a "dyed in the wool" price action trader. So I'll stop here for now, and wait for your reply. And if we do agree that charts themselves are just one of many ways one can record transaction data, and that price data, (regardless of the source [so long as it is accurate] or method of recording that data for future review) is necessary to make your own decision as to transact or not, we would have the basis to continue a little longer without either one having to appear silly. In the mean time, have a Happy Easter!