You asked the question why there seems to be such a high turnover of posters on this thread. I think you have just answered your question.
I think the big point most miss is if you put in the effort, ACD gives you a structure around which you can build a trading system.
Let me elaborate. If you've read Peter Brandt's book, and his blog, you will know he trades classical chart patterns. Now there are two basic problems with his chosen path. First, it is statistically proven that most breakouts fail, and if you trade a chart pattern, you are trading breakouts. Second, the whole world can see the Head and Shoulders breakout you trade, so big fish feast on easy pickings. If you read his blog, you will see that he openly says chart patterns do not provide an edge. His edge is trade management, and he makes rich profits with less than 50% win rate. All that chart patterns provide him is structure.
ACD is a lot more subtle and nuanced than chart patterns. You get a tell before anyone else can see it. All you need to do is understand it well and build a system around it.
I'll drop a nugget, but I'm just doing what Mav did before. He said he mostly leans on NL Derivatives nowadays. If you trade options, you would understand 2nd and 3rd order greeks. If you (not you personally, readers) haven't studied and traded options, but you understand physics, or at least basic English, this will help you.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jounce
Early in this thread, Shan wrote about the 5D NL rate of change. That is a derivative. Nobody seems to have picked up on that, apart from Robert Yanks, who indeed reminded me of it.
These damned derivatives will always make me laugh, because I spent a few months working on them. Data crunching 5 days a week, thinking about what to do next every waking hour. Why do I laugh? Malls here have banking zones. One fine day, deep in thought, I walked into my bank and got a queue number and took a seat. After a while, I looked around and said to myself, wow, they've renovated the place since I was here last month. Then I saw the logo and realised that I had gone into the wrong bank because I was so deep in thought.
Yes, it's an obsession. Maybe some are gifted. I envy those who can read charts so well they don't need any prep, they trade the same instrument every day and harvest money just like playing a video game. There is a Japanese guy who does that, I've posted about him elsewhere. Alas, I don't have that talent, so I have to work for what I get.
I don't post so much on this forum nowadays because I'm tired of the idiots who say there is only one way to trade, their way. Reality is, unless you are supremely gifted, what you need is structure. The best data analysis will not give you a 100% win rate, not even 90%. But it does give you two things, or at least it gives me that.
One, a structure I can trust. Two, directional bias you often can't see on a chart, again, that I can trust. Trust came from experience.
If you disagree with all this, it's fine. Every time I write, I hope it will make sense to the many people who lurk here but don't post. I don't seek to persuade any individual. In the same way I have benefited richly from Mav and all the others before me, I hope I can shine a bit of light for those who came here after me.
Cheers.