Looking for trends in day trading, especially in the US during the afternoon can be challenging to say the least.
Technical analysis in the right context and combined with other methodologies can be useful, however. It is helpful for one to be able to anticipate or determine likely support and resistance areas as they are happening rather than waiting for it to happen. Waiting for a bar breakout to buy off of apparent support and waiting to sell a bar break off of apparent resistance in day trading is leaving a lot of money on the table. Automatically buying near intraday resistance or shorting near intraday support in anticipation of a breakout, especially in the afternoon is likely to impair one's intraday trading results in the long term.
Too many people draw their lines on a chart after the pattern has already developed. Looking at old charts is useless in my opinion because context is not available. Wannabe technicians are better served by drawing their lines off the rightmost bars on their charts and considering context. By context, I mean money flows and relative performance between assets, key events, significant pending scheduled events, time of day, and current price relative to the daily and weekly open.
