FWIW, there is an interesting set of slides from a hedge fund/physicist that discuss some of the ideas here from a quant POV. Enjoy.
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Fundamental Financial Analyst: Price/Earnings ratios, global economy, demand for products
MSNBC
Financial reports company by company
Quantitative Financial Analyst: large data sets of historical prices, etc, and statistical models
Data mining, pattern recognition, analysis
Technical Analyst: moving average trend lines,Elliot wave theory, visual patterns in pricing (âcup and bowlâ, âevening starâ)
Generally not well-founded in statistics
www.fnal.gov/orgs/fermilab_users_org/Krane.ppt
Comparing TA to QFA is like comparing high school math (if that) comprehension to graduate level math comprehension. Notice the bulk of best sellers pander to the high school math crowd (Ironically), while the 'good' stuff that pros use is hidden away in esoteric texts that few bother to read (nor will most even comprehend).
There are a few (but very few) posters here that I would classify on the QFA side. Seek them out and try to understand what they have to say (because there are also a few generous ones who throw a bone once in a while).
The problem with many pure QFA sites (much like actual real life jobs) is that they are filled with pontificating mathematicians who like to derive obfuscating equations all day long, but couldn't trade their way out of a paper bag.
If you can blend both sides, then as someone once quipped, the world is your oyster.