technical view, page-59

Not wanting to start the old "TA vs FA' argument all over again, but just a couple of points:

1. in the words of the great Stanley Weinstein (TA extraordinaire) "You can only trade the right hand edge of the chart, but always remember to look to the left".

2. I used to be pure TA, now I'm both. And I run two portfolios - one trading short term using TA, and one accumulating long term using FA (which is where I have my LYC among others).

3. TA will often give you alerts on scans of breakouts that are worth looking into further, using FA.

4. TA will often give you warning of prices and trends rolling over and heading down - long before it becomes apparent that the FA has changed. The insders ALWAYS know before the rest of us plebs, and that is reflected in the charts.

5. The charts show market sentiment, neatly distilled into candlesticks or bars, and graphs. You need to be able to read the sentiment from the charts - not just mathematical petterns.

6. Finally - the big difference is that:

FA tells you what you think the price OUGHT to be doing

TA tells you what the price IS doing - and what the market thinks of it.

Best strategy? Use both. Don't slag off one approach just because you think it may be mumbo jumbo. TA is based on the past - but so is FA. All fundamentals are historical until they have actually happened - then they're in the past again. Until then, they're just educated guesses. people make livings doing that - they're called "analysts"...! Professional guessers. It's no more accurate than TA charting.

Use both - FA and TA. The best way. Oh yes - and don't forget the third approach - the famous NightStalker GFI - the Gut Feeling Indicator ;) That's the one that tells you to get out of a stock as soon as an announcement mentions the word "lawyers" or "legal action" for example - long before FA or TA changes give SELL signals...!