Troyus, I am a semi-serious investor but definitely an amateur. I am pretty much ignorant of how TA works. I can however read a chart to see when it is a good time to buy and when it is not, but happy to be proven wrong. I have seen a lot of posts on HC where a chartist says "if it goes up it will do this and if it goes down it will do this" and I sort of shake my head. But again, happy to be proven wrong. I can definitely see that if a lot of traders are reading charts in the same way then a stock will move with a sort of trading herd mentality and there's nothing wrong with that I say.
My investment decisions are based on where I think the world is heading, hence I have gone long on renewable energy, lithium and gold. I'm not interested in Woolies or Asciano or CSL even. Not meaning to offend anyone... We will all still need to buy food and medicine! I have limited funds for investment (no margin loans) so I am directing them where I think game changing events will occur.
I do have a question though... did any chartists/TA advocates predict the GFC based on reading charts? This is not a loaded question by the way, I am very interested to know what the experience was as I simply don't know. I took the view that the market was over-bought and only started investing mid to late last year as the GFC was unfolding, more or less, so I guess I have kept my head above water and didn't see the true horror of what went on for people who were long on stocks that have now crashed. Sympathies with those who were. Thanks in advance.
