Quote from harrytrader:
I agree with you as perceived correlation doesn't mean "true" correlation: if something is truly random walk then the perceived correlation is fake correlation wich is mathematically called "persistency" since at least the statistician Levy has established it's law: see the thread
"Arcsinus law: distinguishing trend from persistency of chance "
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22256&highlight=persistency+and+trend
And what is true for "perceived trend" is also true for "perceived pattern" which can be as fake pattern as fake trend above when it is in fact persistency, that is to say you will find trendline, head & shoulders, triangles etc (more or less other complicated perceived patterns)... even in a random generated price.
So when I am talking of patterns I'm not talking about illusionary (only perceived) patterns but about true patterns. What true patterns mean OPERATIONALLY speaking ? It is about probability of predicting them in advance not only that they can occur but that they will occur at a precise level because if you only say they will be a trendline or triangle the probability will be high that it will be true even with random prices.
The basic premisces of believing that there is no true pattern is logical: it is because there are so many market participants the stock market can only be random (even it is non-normal law so random is used here in the sense there is a probability law or universe) and so the patterns are illusionary. For example if you see a trendline or a triangle pattern occurs well it could occur by random at any price. But what if it occurs at a level that you can predict before the pattern even appears ? Then maybe it is not random because you can estimate the probability of making such a prediction by randomness: it is very low (again whatever probability distribution you would assume normal or not the order of the probability will stay low) and above all if your prediction is repeatable with the same accuracy then you can apply Bayes law of compounding probability and the probability will be very very very low so that it will requires more than the age of Universe to realise all the predictions just by random.
Now this is a school hypothesis as traditional TA can only see patterns AFTER the fact so that it doesn't prove much scientifically, but I can affirm that's what I CAN REALISE with my model. As it is not an urgency for me to demonstrate anything except for fun, I won't do it yet as it requires supplement work from me that doesn't really serve my trading because I don't base my trading on traditional patterns but on my own model's patterns which I called "design-pattern" that exist BEFORE market occurs to distinguish from patterns that appear AFTER market occurs. But one day I should do it when I will have time to collect all the datas from my model for that and from classical ta patterns.
Let's take yesterday for example. This is not a proof just an illustration of what I mean: we can see a clear trendline that is not horizontal but has a little slope upward ... (I will come back after market to continue).
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