>I must say that the term technical analysis is very vague. >Personally I wouldn't put wyckoff analysis at the same level >because you have something based in principles not patterns
I have something based in principles which are the same principles as Wyckoff, Dow etc.. that is to say the market movement is due to some initiates group that has big money to control the market and not by the other participant of the markets. The difference between Dow, Wickoff, others who would claim the same thing ... and me is that they just have a qualitative theory and so they cannot prove what they say whereas I have a set of mathematical equations that is to say a true model in physical sens of term a "causal" model, a white box model that doesn't try to fit market datas but depart from causes and see what the consequences are. And the consequences are that market are constrained by some paths imposed by this group and not by the other participants. So the so called "free" market is really a farce for me: it is as free as prisoner number 6 in a famous fiction film
You belong to the other participants. The story of 1929 is just an example not a demonstration. But it is significant and since human nature doesn't change and since those who has the money power at that time doesn't change either and has even accumulated even more money power and even more sophitiscated tools, why should it be different today ? It is not because you didn't participate in manipulation, if manipulation there is, that you can affirm that it is rather the exception than the rule. I won't publish my equations since I did create them to make money and not to make public demonstration of manipulation, so I won't formely prove it more than Whickoff or Dow, but I say in the past manipulation pool was even known publicly and today there is no reason they disappeared because it is BIG MONEY INTEREST. I only believe in interest, moral cannot be sustainable in front of interest.
All academic research based on agent theories will just be able to conclude to crash behavior of market but will never reach the cause because their premisces are false and as such they will encounter the kind of Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and they will affirm yes the market is not predictable and is driven by crazy and irrational people. As I have already said even Heisenberg incertitude is not a sure thing and could be just an artificial barrier physicians have constructed because they couldn't find the language to express nature more precisely:
"The theorems of Goedel, Turing, and Chaitin are limitations on our ability to know in the world of mathematics. The same limitation applies to statements such as the celebrated Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in quantum theory, which at first glance appears to refer to an inherent limitation on our ability to measure certain quantities in the physical world. But a more careful examination shows that Heisenberg uncertainty is actually a limitation imposed by certain mathematical formulations of quantum theory, and may or may not be an intrinsic limitation in the structure of the real world itself." in "Would be worlds"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-2286954-1255355 John L. Casti member of the Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute
Quote from programtrader:
harry,
I must say that the term technical analysis is very vague. Personally I wouldn't put wyckoff analysis at the same level because you have something based in principles not patterns (and this is one reason why TA is so popular, because most of us have been taught to learn by patterns, something that you call explicit learning in psychology). There are lots of differences between trading a "head and shoulders" pattern or trading a "effort without result" principle.
And I did not said that there is no manipulation. Manipulation is the exception not the rule. I have 5 yrs experience in institutional brokerage in a less liquid european market, where is easy to "play" with the market. But we never fight the trend because the market always dictates the rules...If you are an old fashioned tape reader, you dont' need what you call TA for nothing... Just a couple of principles, the right stock and the right frequency data.