Oh wow, what the fuck!? I just came back and there are pages and pages of bashing and negativity. Some people here are just emotionally disturbed, there's no other explanation.
Now, on TA... TA is not a testable method. We all could take the same classes and read the same books on TA and we would apply it in completely different ways. Some of us would be profitable, some won't. If most wannabe-traders fail, it's expected that many would blame the method, while the few successful traders would attribute their success to the method...
The say I understand TA is very simple. I don't care if it's a diamond, a flag, a wedge or a bird. Most of my trading is based on simple TA concepts: s/r, moving average as support, resistance and trend tracking, simple candlestick patterns (mostly top tails, bottom tails and elephant bars) and trend lines.
Most patterns arise not only because of market participants' expectations, but because institutions need to execute gigantic buy/sell orders, and their actions will be reflected on the price.
To claim that it's impossible to trade off the 5m chart because of hft is just absurd. Just follow aapl for a week and you'll see what I'm talking about. But forex is a different deal, volatility is crazy.
-- there's a photo of him in one of the Palm Beach forum meetup threads. he was wearing pink pants slacks (or light blue or some pastel color), if i recall.
