On the institutional sell side(FX), you see a lot of smart money and big ticket flow. Real Money is quite predictable and seasonal. You are able to see and organize flow from HF, real Money, CTA's and model accounts. Market Making, even in big shops where you can take some sizable risk is a different ballgame. The franchise value from some of the flow allows MM traders much more leeway to make mistakes and to soften psychological blows during bad trading periods. Cant count the number of times a client flow took me out of large bad position. I certainly used charts but only for optimal entry/exit, and to predict model and CTA flow.
Is this market heavy manipulated? I do not think so. Do some people have an advantage due to superior technology and information?, for sure. But they are subject to the same market forces everyone else is. For sure this retail game is tough. I have learned that you have to play it differently and perhaps have realistic expectations of what you can achieve. Every game has a winning strategy.