Let us be clear. Primary research in the trading context is doing your own testing, which may or may not include actual trading. Secondary research, by definition, is looking at what others have already done. I would imagine that this would include reading more material on a specific topic or discussing it with supposedly knowledgeable people. I think that about covers it. In my own case I found that, once I developed a basic grounding in T/A, my only real progress was via "primary research." Everything else was tangential. Evidently, you disagree. This disagreement supports the notion that there are varied paths to the Happy Kingdom.
P.S. As for your reference to where the "rubber meets the road," presumably you refer to actual trading. However, let us remember that the question posed was not one specifically about trading, but rather about T/A itself (and, presumably, the development of a method - however, that is an inference on my part).
