It seems all the pros use Price Analysis and Noobies use Technical Indicators

[sneakoner]

Quote from murray t turtle:

=============
Sneak;
Actually, price nor patterns nor tek indicators predict. Its about probabilities.

Remember the rule of 72w;
work /study 6 days a week times 12 hours a day=72. You will find that quite helpful , do it enough years.

So no, & plenty of pros use 200 day moving average.......................................................................... [not a prediction];
& thanks for your question

you're saying the pros have done it 72 hrs a week for a number of years?

 

[fandresu]

Quote from wrbtrader:

Hi,

I'm not sure of your definition of Pros or Noobies but here's mine. Pros to me are traders like floor traders, institutional traders, hedge funds and other similar like traders. The rest of us...those trading from home are mainly "retail traders" regardless if we've been doing it for a few days...

Mark

Thanks for the post

 

[kut2k2]

Quote from The Big D:

Technical analysis (as opposed to fundamental analysis) is simply market prediction based on previous/current price, volume and order book. As such, any method that falls under "price action" also must by definition be "technical analysis".

As such, this whole debate is retarded.

The debate isn't about PA versus TA, it's about PA (one form of TA) versus indicators (another form of TA). As some have pointed out, it doesn't have to be an either-or thing but for others who consider themselves unforgivably burned by (certain) indicators, it always will be.

For some, it may be a debate about discretionary trading versus mechanical trading. A great many PA traders are discretionary at base.

 

[jsmooth]

The main difference is simple....pros/ppl that make money don’t need "confirmation" to get into a trade. I good trader will get in when they think its value/immediately, they wont hesitate, and if they're wrong they just get out....losers, on the other hand, are the opposite, they wait for confirmation to tell them when to get in, then don’t get out when they are wrong....so they will get in late and then stop out late, cause they'll again wait for confirmation to get them out...good traders are willing to take on risk (but they know how much they are risking)....losers, wait for confirmation to tell them they can get in without taking any risk (but that’s never the case)

Professional traders do use technical analysis…they just use it different…

Quote from sneakoner:

Is this true?

When I say price analysis I'm referring to candlestick charting like ascending triangles, double tops, etc.

Technical indicators include MACD Histograms, Stochastics, etc.

Is this because price analysis is better at predicting future price movements whereas technical indicators lag the price?

Also I believe there is tape reading which involves bid/ask/order etc (I'm not too familiar with this although it did come up alot on Reminiscence of a Stock Operator).

Am I missing anything else?

I'm a newbie in case you didn't realize by now

 

[mrhazelj]

pro do use indicators. there is no real advantage of having a chart full of candles and nothing else. that's a myth.

if anybody knew what they were looking at they would know that you'd only use them to find the vicinity of a cycle highs/lows and use it for divergences only. and only the direction of ma's. that's how it's supposed to be used but you get these new people using this above/below 0 junk and that's not what it is used for or how it's used. the "D" in MACD does have a meaning you know!

 

[The Big D]

Quote from kut2k2:

The debate isn't about PA versus TA, it's about PA (one form of TA) versus indicators (another form of TA). As some have pointed out, it doesn't have to be an either-or thing but for others who consider themselves unforgivably burned by (certain) indicators, it always will be.

For some, it may be a debate about discretionary trading versus mechanical trading. A great many PA traders are discretionary at base.

The issue with this distinction is that any method which is well defined can easily be converted into an indicator. Thus all mechanical methods are equivalent to indicators whether they "use" indicators or not.

"Discretionary" trading is ill defined, but usually equates to losing money.

 

[murray t turtle]

Quote from sneakoner:

you're saying the pros have done it 72 hrs a week for a number of years?

==============
Sneaker ;
Yes & more than a few would chuckle @ that [ small number-72 hours / week] Not to mention that girl that started reading WSJ at 5 years old. Slow to start reading myself ,7 years old .

Ps ,mentioning/publishing an indicator may mess/crowd it up a while;
like rush hour traffic jam.
But check out/study/study donchian channels, 10 yr chart...............................................................................Rich Donchian [Dad of trend following is his nicknme]channels plot highest hi;
lowest lo.....

 

[ha-pattern]

Quote from sneakoner:

Is this true?

When I say price analysis I'm referring to candlestick charting like ascending triangles, double tops, etc.

Technical indicators include MACD Histograms, Stochastics, etc.

Is this because price analysis is better at predicting future price movements whereas technical indicators lag the price?

Also I believe there is tape reading which involves bid/ask/order etc (I'm not too familiar with this although it did come up alot on Reminiscence of a Stock Operator).

Am I missing anything else?

I'm a newbie in case you didn't realize by now

Another categorization of studies:

1 tape, order flow
2 candlestick / bar
3 patterns, drawing devices (TL's, ellipses, etc.) with 2
3a the simpler, non-moving-average-based indicators (volume, a partial use of bars, sessions, etc.) with 2
5 moving-average-based indicators (ma's, macd's, stoch, etc.) with 3 or 3a

 

[bone]

Nobody mentions strategy. Most "Pro" traders do not trade flat price directional outright strategies.

Ask a Bloomberg pro terminal sales rep in Manhattan or Chicago how most of his clients trade.

 

[snowrider]

I would say true. At least, to me the following is true:

Relying on indicators equals to losing money.

Therefore, you won't see any indicators in my charts.