trading without charts...suicide?

[cstu]

I have been trading for twenty years and don't use charts. I really don't know how to read them and at this point why would I use them if 1,000,000 people out there are better chartists than me?

I do know that I have other abilities where I am superior to other traders, thus I rely on them.

Funny though, one of my programs has charting and it has 10-12 variables. When you hit a certain key it gives you the number of positive variables and also negative. Not knowing anything about charts I can pretty much look at it and determine pretty closely what the ratio positive to negative is.

 

[BricksandMortar]

Quote from cashmoney69:

I was talking with a day trader in yahoo chat the other day, and he said that he has 10+ years experiance and does not use charts at all.

I was like..how can you not use charts? charts give you patterns, trends, s/r.. entry/exit points.

even though this can be done, is it a wise thing to do even if you do have 10+ years behind you?

-- who knows...that guy could have been a fake --

thanks for all posts

- nathan

I personally know a lot of people who don’t use charts. Most of the traders I know who don’t use them pull 7 figures. One of them is a partner in Schonfeld, another owns Equity Trading, and the last guy used to be one of Worldco top traders.

Some of these guys only look at the last price and nothing more.. Don’t ask me how they do it but they do!

 

[efficiency]

Using spreadsheets with both buy and sell stops based up a multiple of the ATR doesn't require charts. I do it all the time.

 

[steve46]

Most folks are unaware that the famous confederate General George McClellan is still alive and scalping Naz stocks from his home in Sarasota Florida.

The General wakes up early and trades from his hospital bed using a system of braille charts generated by his administrative assistant, Ms. Wedgewood. It is said that he is a real shark, moving in and out of stocks at the blink of an eye (no pun intended).

After a profitable day, the General often rises and with the aid of his walker proceeds to his frontyard where he admonishes the local school childern to stay off his lawn ("get off my lawn you little bastards"). A true patriot, the General then takes down his confederate flag (he has a 30 foot flagpole in his yard) and ends the day by firing his revolver into the air ("just to keep those damn dogs off my lawn").

Those are the facts.

Steve

 

[whitster]

charts are just a tool. all they do is graph time vs. price (and with or without volume)

you certainly do not NEED charts to trade, or to invest.

some use em. some don;t

 

[EdgeHunter]

Quote from steve46:

Most folks are unaware that the famous confederate General George McClellan is still alive and scalping Naz stocks from his home in Sarasota Florida.

The General wakes up early and trades from his hospital bed using a system of braille charts generated by his administrative assistant, Ms. Wedgewood. It is said that he is a real shark, moving in and out of stocks at the blink of an eye (no pun intended).

After a profitable day, the General often rises and with the aid of his walker proceeds to his frontyard where he admonishes the local school childern to stay off his lawn ("get off my lawn you little bastards"). A true patriot, the General then takes down his confederate flag (he has a 30 foot flagpole in his yard) and ends the day by firing his revolver into the air ("just to keep those damn dogs off my lawn").

Those are the facts.

Steve

Sheesh Steve, at least you could have mentioned what type of revolver he was using...

I am a tape junkie... great thread... I watch the last trades and the large trades on an active T&S screen...

combining that with the SP500 tick vs the NYSE tick and the NYSE VOLD and NAZ full market VOLDQ to see raw buy sell volume readings (eSignal proprietary indicator)

yes... order flow is the way to go...

cj...



_________________
HAVE STOP - WILL TRADE

If You Have The Vision We Have The Code

 

[Albert]

I can't say that I don't use charts, but I do something a little different, since I want to get away from them and my addiction to computers. I use Telechart to scan for stocks and take the initial trade, and when I am finished with the trade, I then manually write the OHLC, vol, and range of the stock (and sometimes, commodity) that I just got out of. Once I get up to about 50, I cut it out or get rid of a few. Trades that I make on the basis of the written ledger don't make more money, I just go into the trade a little more confidently. I'll eventually be able to do this and maybe do a little better if I increase my size to the same as the charted stocks.
Albert

 

[smallfil]

Frege,

Nicolas Darvas uses consolidation and breakouts to trade. This is also technical analysis in of itself. His presentation is slightly different but, if you look at a stock chart with consolidations and breakouts----it is essentially the same!!!
Not slamming anyone----just sharing an observation.
I would think that support and resistance levels which is based on price can be traded profitably.
However, what one does in the heat of battle is usually different and the opposite of what you should have done. I know that as traders, we have to know when to zig and when to zag if we want to be successful investors.

 

[Frege]

Quote from smallfil:

Frege,

Nicolas Darvas uses consolidation and breakouts to trade. This is also technical analysis in of itself. His presentation is slightly different but, if you look at a stock chart with consolidations and breakouts----it is essentially the same!!!
Not slamming anyone----just sharing an observation.
I would think that support and resistance levels which is based on price can be traded profitably.
However, what one does in the heat of battle is usually different and the opposite of what you should have done. I know that as traders, we have to know when to zig and when to zag if we want to be successful investors.

Yes, Nicolas Darvas called himself a techno-fundamental investor.

http://www.stressfreetrading.com/darvas.htm

 

[murray t turtle]

Quote from Bitstream:/Batterup''also displayed on chart''

I bet is the other way round; patterns are most likely there to deceive than to give clues; when I see double tops/bottoms, etc. I always think they won't be validated and during intraday movements it's most likely the case than not. the only thing I find useful is price reaction to emas: very consistent.

============
Frankly think with all the info on this thread the non chart users made the better case for more buck$ ;
still prefer candlecharts,
even if candlecharts may not even be as profitable as tickcharts.

Think with double tops, double bottoms they ,tend to live thier names, but direction still an important factor;
not necessary to see that on a chart context , just prefer to.


And when most of bids/moving averages going down;
wouldnt count on a double top to mean much for bulls.

Some thing else tricky , good downtrend has lower lows, but a good double bottom frequently makes a lower-low[seen on a chart as prices lower/down on 2nd''v''of w], then uptrends on to higher highs.
Moving averages could help there direction wise also.