Good for you. I cannot trade just with charts. Charts help. But it is better to also know what is going on behind the scenes. All the people who where long EURCHF when SNB depegged got it fu****. Did there charts warn them? No.
Still trying to figure out how a discussion regarding What moves stocks in the Long term turns into a debate on the validity of charts in the short term.
Ok I take back what I said about you can't trade with just charts. But do you agree that the lower the timeframe the worser your results will be? I just finished trading in simulation on daily timeframe, just chart, and the results are much better than when I tried it with 1hr.
No offense intended but it depends entirely on whether or not you know what you're doing. That chart you posted earlier was of a stock that had gone from 2 to 20 in two years. Is it shocking that yet another attempt at a breakout would fail? Snickering at the failed breakout of a strawman stock proves nothing. You continue to circle around just exactly what it is you want to know without coming in for a landing. Apparently you want to know where to find "hot stocks" that you can buy for the "longer term". Well, the "heat" is supplied by the charts. The "longer term" is supplied by fundamentals. I suggest, therefore, that you investigate How To Make Money In Stocks by Wm O'Neil, either the first edition (white) or the second edition (red). He explains how to evaluate companies based on fundamentals and earnings power, then when to buy them based on technicals, i.e., how the price is behaving. One of the chief mistakes that beginners make is jumping on the latest and greatest, always too late, when what they should be doing is putting together a universe of their own selection and following those stocks in that universe so that they can be purchased at just the right time. If, for example, you had bought whatever when it came out of its accumulative base two years ago, the breakout would not have failed and you would have increased your investment ten times over. But you would have had to know about the stock while it was still in its base. So learn how to evaluate both companies and their stocks and put together your list. You may find something that can be purchased next week. Or next month. Or an opportunity may not come up for a year. But at least you'll have something on which to focus and won't be chasing after that hot tip that has already left you behind.
Yeah you have a point db.(2-20) I will check out that book. Thanks everyone for the advice. I guess there is no secret to trading after all.