Quote from Pizzaboy:
You should be reported to the moderator for stirring up trouble. Stick to the topic!
Quote from Pizzaboy:
OMG! I thought this was elitetrader, not noob central This statement clearly shows why most of you believe in TA, you are lacking a basic fundamental understanding of how markets even work. More buyers than sellers, the brain trust above states. There are never ever more buyers than sellers. It's always equal... Duh!
This basic misunderstanding and a lack of mathematical competence give rise to all kinds of witchcraft like TA . Please, if you do not understand the basics take the time to learn. Stop spreading the same nonsense over over again.
Quote from Visaria:
I have not really thought about this before, but after doing so, pizzaboy is correct. In a futures market, the number of contracts bought on any given day must equal the number sold.
So the question then is how do prices move as opposed to why they move?
Quote from Maverickz:
The problem in this argument is the difference between actual buyers and sellers and POTENTIAL buyers and sellers. In a sense they are both right.
For any item to change hands for money there has to be BOTH a buyer and a seller, but the number does not necessarily have to be equal. If I had 1000 shares of XYZ I could sell those to 1 person so it would be equal or I could sell 100 shares each to 10 people so the number of buyers and sellers would not be equal. They key is that the supply and the demand would have been equal at that point.
However when the POTENTIAL buyers (people wanting to buy at a given price) outnumber the POTENTIAL sellers (people wanting to sell at a given price), there is more demand than supply and the price will go up. When there are more POTENTIAL sellers than POTENTIAL buyers then price will go down.
Why is that true? Imagine if you sold widgets and were the only seller but you had 100,000 widgets for sale. You started out wanting to sell them for $20 each but you only managed to sell 200 of them at that price because no one else wanted to buy at that price? You would have to lower your price to sell more right? Supply exceeded demand so price had to drop. Conversely if you were going to sell the widgets for $20 each and discovered that 500,000 people wanted them at $20 but many would be willing to pay more to make sure they got their share of the limited supply you would take as much as you could get thus raising the price.

Quote from Pizzaboy:
Interesting points, thanks. However, wouldn't this throw out the basic premise of T A or even behavioral finance into the trash? It's not the herd that moves the market, it's the herd of capital. This herd of capital can be controlled by one person therefore negating the premise that TA is the reflection of the crowd of investors/traders. If it isn't the crowd that moves markets, but rather the density of money in play at any
One time, how could TA possibly indicate or predict the whims of the one or few humans controlling the most capital at any given time. In addition, dense money players come and go into markets at random times thus by default render TA moot. It's a bankrupt theory. TA is descriptive and served no other purpose
What am I missing?
Quote from Maverickz:
I think a large part of the reason TA works and actually works pretty well is that so many people, including many institutions and automated traders use it, that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think about it, if enough people/systems are looking at a price reversal at the same or similar point and have potential orders at those points it will in effect cause the reversal.
Example:
Suppose XYZ stock made a 52 week high 2 months ago of $45. Then it dropped dramatically and is just now getting close to retesting that high. TA principals will say that there is a lot of "supply" at that $45 level so practically every TA follower or automated system will be waiting to short or sell to cover at that point, there by artificially creating the supply level even if there wouldn't have otherwise been one there.
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Quote from gucci:
You can not be serious. One of the most powerful variables to determine the non randomness is amiss. This is like an exercise in a kindergarten. WTF? What the hell was it thought to proof?