It seems there is a lot of confusion about chart reading enough that people are posting ridiculous threads.
The key to trading is that the information must be actionable. Knowing something 2 minutes after the fact is not actionable 2 minutes ago, unless you have a time machine.
The 3 levels of proficiency.
Level 1) Can read a chart after the fact. This is the beginner level. You can pick apart the details and know what to do after the fact. Everyone needs to start somewhere, and this is a good place to start. But this information is not that valuable.
Furthermore, you can create enough hard "rules", after the fact, to apply them consistently to other charts, after the fact*. If you cannot do this, do not go to level 2.
Level 2) Can read a chart in real time, but you have an infinite amount of time to do your analysis. Time is frozen. This is intermediate skill level. Your skill is still bareley actionable still, because you are taking too much time, and frankly, time and markets do not stand still. You will fall behind, get exhausted and make mistakes.
Level 3) Can read a chart in real time, and can make decisions in real time about trading orders, actions etc. Now you are proficient. You can keep up with the markets. You can filter out the noise from the signal, in real-time. You have enough time to make your trading choices and get them to the broker and exchange. Now you are trading.
Furthermore, you can keep on doing this real time analysis bar after bar, minute by minute, hour by hour until the trading day ends.
I hope this clears some things up.
*This is where most of the silly threads end. They cannot even make up testable rules using charts after the fact. They are not even in the parking lot, let alone in the game. To say otherwise, is to show their secondary, and deadly, short coming: Way overestimating their skills.
