you cannot be serious with this question........ try reading William Oneil's book first or second chapter is all charts
The problem in this thread as it is in most of the other past TA debate threads is that there are too many replies by traders that do not mention anything else in their trading plan that they're using with TA. Therefore, anyone dropping in on the debate would think the person is saying he/she only uses TA and nothing else. That provides fuel for the debate by guys like marketsurfer and many others like him. This is why threads about TA are extremely popular. In contrast, go visit other threads involving those other critical elements (e.g. money management) of a profitable traders trading plan and you'll only see a few replies or few pages. Simply, its just a fact that most don't want to talk about nor indicate the importance of variables like money management, proper position size management, proper capitalization, proper trading environment, proper equipment, discipline, trading experience, collaboration as being just as important or arguably more important than their use of TA. Maybe those are just boring topics for a TA user. Think about this carefully, most beginner traders or struggling traders will concentrate on making changes to their TA whenever market conditions changes, drawdowns occurs or blowups happen. In contrast, most profitable traders that are are veteran traders will concentrate on making changes in their money management, position size, capitalization, collaboration, discipline whenever market conditions changes, drawdowns occurs while leaving their TA not touch (no changes). Its just sad for profitable traders using TA to give no indication about those other tools in their trading plan. Maybe its done intentional for debating purposes only. Anyways, the next time you see a newbie trader that seems confused about his TA poor performance in live trading with real money after backtesting profitably...don't waste your time & energy analyzing the TA. Instead, take a closer look at all those other variables I've mention that's part of the trading plan to find the culprit causing the problem.
@WRB Take TA out of the mix--- would these traders who are skilled with the other factors continue to be profitable? Surf
Right, it is more complex, but the proper incorporation of volatility into one's rules can skew the odds definitely in your favor in a way that's measurably beyond just pure chance. From there, there are additional filters I apply, but the first and most important is volatility-based.
For my part, I sort of assume that those items are in place for people. They are part of the professionalism someone either brings or does not bring to their trading. Money management and discipline will have a huge effect on outcomes, without a doubt.
Hmmm, if you have an objective fixed system why not program it thus removing the human element completely? Computers have no problem with discipline etc. Unless, horrors, your system is subjective. There is a fundamental illogical premise to the above post. Funny it would come from someone named "logic". LOL! Surf