I made money as a technical analysis and by using Gann. If you read early surf reports I was a huge Gann proponent---I pushed TA into a very complicated realm and realized that I could be making guesses at the market ( educated guesses, not purely random ), manage the trade, and obtain the exact same results as with TA.
At the same time, I became friendly with Vic Niederhoffer and started being mentored and associating with his traders and group.
Next, i started researching these supposed winning TA traders and discovered that it was nothing but marketing hype with very very little actual fact based material. I realized that TA sells, hence its popularity. It "appears" to make sense but its its core the premise is fatally flawed---
Anyone who objectively looks at the evidence and the core premise behind TA will reach the same conclusions.
surf