Quote from gqguy2003:
Perhaps I should clarify.
Techncial analysis to me means running your indicators on the right data.
That data means the trin, the vix, the S&P premium, the Nasdaq premium and the Russell premium. If you are watching those indicators you don't need to listen to the news because how the news is being interpreted by institutional investors is being reflected in that data. How institutions crunch the news may bear little resemblance to how the news is being viewed by small traders.
Good news doesn't mean the market will rally any more than bad news means the market will sell off. It all depends on how program trading will affect volume either to the sell or to the buy side and if you dont know what the program trading firms are doing, the news alone is meaningless. Program trading generally makes up more than 50% of the volume on any given day.
By watching the right indicators you know how the big money is interpreting the news and what the big money is doing is all that matters. Good news could mean a great opportunity for program trading firms to short sell stocks that are heavily weighted to the sell side and if enough program trading firms view it that way, the market will short the good news and leave the individual trader out to dry who thought it was a great opportunity to buy.
Reading the right indicators the right way, is what technical analysis means to me. The right indicators have already crunched the news with the right bias. Technical analysis viewed in this way most certainly does move the market. News alone does not move the market until it has been interpreted. The process of interpreting that data is clearly a matter of intense technical analysis. And until the news is crunched by the big money the small investors view point has little better than a 50/50 chance of being consistent with the big institutions.
My view of technical analysis is not a matter of running bollinger bands, chaikin oscillators, stochastics, gann fans, the MacD, RSI or any other indicator on price data. That kind of technical analysis is agreeably rather pointless and has no more impact on the market than a caboose has on the direction of a train.
Perhaps after all is said, we are really on the same page.
Hi gqguy2003,
I strongly agree with you when you say the following...
...Good news doesn't mean the market will rally any more than bad news means the market will sell off...
With that said, I'll repeat...
News, geopolitical events, FED events, economic events, rumors, influences by other key markets et cetera...
They are the true movers of the markets (usually not one event all by itself on a consistent basis).
Notice how I did not say that News Alone move prices because I agree with you.
In addition, technical Analysis is only a tool being used by many to help explain or visualize the above key market events impact on supply/demand itself.
Thus, for clarification, technical analysis does not cause swing points.
For example, take a look at any given swing point caused by 0830am est key economic reports.
To say that TA did that and not the key economic report is odd.
Yet, TA can be used to visualize what has occurred at 0830am est and to make trade decisions.
TA can also be used to help explain what has happen but that explanation doesn't imply its the reason why that particular price action has occurred.
Regardless, if your making consistent profits doing it your way...
Keep doing it because I'm a strong believer that there's more than one way to make money in this market.
However, I myself prefer to know when these key market events are going to occur so that I can be better prepared to react to the price action that results from the key market event.
Therefore, key market events and understanding how much of an impact they have on the market is very important to my trading along with it dictating how I use technical analysis.
Last of all, anybody with access to intraday data along with looking at the key market events at the below links can easily see on a consistent basis (not every single time) when a swing point or strong continuation price action will occur.
http://fidweek.econoday.com/calendar/US/EN/New_York/year/2007/month/08/day/20/daily/index.html
http://www.forexfactory.com/calendar.php
How far price moves in a particular direction after the event and if a trader has the ability to exploit the price action is a different story.
This answers all those common threads where we see being asking here at ET...
* What moves the markets?
* How do you know when volatility or volume will show up?
* When are swing points, reversals or strong continuation price action most likely to occur?
* What's price action only trading?
* What do price action only traders use?
Mark