Quote from Soon2Bgreat:
Silly question I'm sure, but can you give me an idea of what the basic difference is behind Price Action vs. TA?
Generally, I'd say TA is useful (unlike this response
)
Price action trading is a trader that does
not use technical indicators or technical studies for trade decisions based upon price action analysis.
There are primarily three
basic groups of traders that are price action trading.
1) Traders that use charts...sometimes this is refer to as chart reading of price patterns or key price areas
without indicators. This is technical analysis without using indicators.
2) Traders that use time & sales/bid & ask screens...sometimes this is refer to as tape reading involving order flow
without charts. This is
not a form of technical anlaysis.
3) Traders that use both of the above as in charts and time & sales/bid & ask screens
without indicators.
Simply, if you're using a chart with or without indicators...you're using TA. Also, if you're using a chart or bid & ask screens without indicators...you're a price action trader. Therefore, if someone thinks TA is useless while using charts for trade decisions...that's a confused trader. Just the same, traders that refers to themselves as price action traders while using at least one indicator...that's a confused trader.
For those that don't know what are technical studies (indicators), these are price moving averages, macd, cci, rsi, stochastics, bollinger bands, adx and hundreds more indicators I don't want to spend any time mentioning.