I've seen a few commentary in this thread that's incorrect.
Myth #1 - Pro traders don't use TA.
I've sat in the trading office of several institutions in U.S., Canada and France. I've seen institutional traders using charts (no indicators) but its still TA. Just the same, I've seen institutional traders with indicators on their charts. I've also seen institutional traders use only bid/ask screens. Yet, I know that they're
not dependent upon their charts, bid/ask screens and so on for their trade decisions. Simply, TA is just one tool they're using with many other tools and those other tools are more important.
Reality is that retail traders are more dependent upon TA than pro traders.
My point is that I've never met a profitable trader that uses TA exclusively and nothing else. Regardless if someone is a pro trader or retail trader...profitable traders using TA are also dependent upon money management, proper capitalization, trading experience, position size management, collaboration resources, data/equipment reliability and many other resources...
On any given trading day, anyone of the above tools
will impact someone's profitability more than the other tools being used. The markets are far too complicated for us traders to be using TA successfully all by itself and nothing else. Thus, don't fool yourself into believing you'll be profitable via TA alone while abandoning money management, proper capitalization, trading experience, position size management, collaboration resources, data/equipment reliability and many other resources.
* TA works but only if you have a
good trading plan involving the above mentioned variables.
* TA does not work if you have a
poor trading plan involving the above mentioned variables.
Myth #2 - I use charts for reference only but its
not TA.
The moment you open a chart and start doing any kind of price analysis...its technical analysis even if you have not plotted any indicators because the plotted price quotes as bars, line, candlesticks, dotted, histogram, color coded is a technical plot in itself. In contrast, if you're only using bid/ask/time & sales screens without any technical plots...it is not TA.
Therefore, if you truly believe you don't use TA or that TA doesn't work. You should never look at another chart again (seriously). Thus, you'll trade via bid/ask/times & sales screens only.
Myth #3 - If TA works...prove it via showing your trade statements.
Trade statements, real-time posted trades do not prove that TA works. It will only prove that you're profitable or not profitable. Also, does not indicate the interaction of all those critical variables (e.g. money management, proper capitalization, trading experience and so on) with your use of TA as mentioned earlier.
Myth #4 - You can prove TA works via posting hindsight charts.
Let me know if you believe such so that I can put you on my ignore list.
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Oddly, go start a thread about money management, position size management, reliable data/equipment and any other variables that's critical to one's success or failure...you'll barely get a few replies or a few pages here at ET or at any other trader forum.
Same TA debate thread...every month and every year...with a few new user names.
