chartists are share psychics nothin more!!, page-32

Some really good posts from Tibbs, Perkins, Roocus and Texasoil. Well done guys.

There's no need for conflicts betweem TA and FA - and I think the above posters have articulated that well.

People can follow FA, TA or both. All are legitimate strategies. Just depends on personal interests and other factors such as available time, risk appetites, tax objectives etc etc.

Personally, I prefer FA but appreciate the value of TA in terms of its assistance with entry and exit decisions.

A couple of things that interest me about TA:

1. Like Roocus, I believe that there has to be a large self-fulfilling dynamic in TA. Especially in small caps (without much institutional interest) where the weight of money from those who follow TA is high. As they are all presumably looking for the same signals, they all respond in sync (or near enough) thereby bringing about what they predict through their own collective action (together with the flow-on effect on those who 'follow the money'). Of course, this effect can be reversed by a left field FA development (as happened with PEN this morning)

2. How good are the practitioners and how do you identify the good ones? I would think that, as in all fields, there are good TA analysts, average ones and poor ones. So, if you do not have time/inclination to learn the skills yourself, but want to follow TA posts, you need to learn enough to work out who is worth following.

3. Buyer beware, if basing buy/sell decisions on the TA analysis of others. TA is far from an exact science. It is merely an analysis and interpretation of past patterns that may or may not repeat today, tomorrow or next week. It is a little like racing punters following the picks of tipsters. The tipsters study the form in detail (perhaps including with charts) and often get it right but also often get it wrong. (as with Shareholder in regard to PEN during the last week or two - underestimatying the upside by 3c and then - so far at least - overestimating the retrace by 3c).

Irrespective of the above, both TA and FA have their place.
FA will drive the long term action, but in the short term, there will be overbuying and overselling and TA has much to offer in assisting some in how and when to respond to those opportunities.