If I shoot at you, you will try to hide or run away.
Actually Freeze, Fight or Run are the options, most people will FREEZE, then Run then FIGHT.
Personally, better to die fighting than being shot in the back like a coward

If I shoot at you, you will try to hide or run away.

But But But, you believe candle stick patterns or MACD or RSI, allow you to see the other traders fear and predict it, that's where the issue is, they won't.
I trade off very short term momentum, but no way would I say it's TA.
29mins to my H4 candles closes, then I'll take a reading, spin around on my chart, flip a coin, check the tea leaves in my cup and make a guess![]()

What you see is not important. What I see is important. I work with mathematical models, what I consider as TA too. I know many people who can do things that I cannot, but I can do things that many others cannot too. If you only judge from your own knowledge you miss at least half of what happens in the world.
When will we have this shooting? So that I can make my point. Maybe it will be killing evidence.![]()
I compare building a trading system with scientists who do research to find new medication.
These researchers have a whole list of chemical substances from which they know all the qualifications. On the other hand they have a disease they want to threat. What they should do is understand the disease, how it starts, what makes it worst or better, and so on. They have to find first what the problem is that they should attack and then they should try to find the correct chemical combination to do this attack. Most researchers never find anything. But does this mean that the way research is done does not work? No, it only means that this researcher has not the required abilities, or maybe luck, to succeed. But every now and then somebody finds a superb new medicine.
The same applies to trading. The market behavior is the disease. All charting and mathematical material are the chemicals, and the trader is the scientist. He should find the optimal combination to fight the market.
That's because if you trade for the money you will be far more likely to lose.
You could also argue, that anyone that says it's not money, is proberley lying.
I used to be in it for the challenge, but these days its all about the money.