chartwatch, page-39

Welcome Back Ed,

About me:
1. I am not a chartist
2. I don't know a pitchfork from a shovel and spent hours trying to see a rising star one day. Must be blind.

My views about Chartists / Technical Analysts, Fundamental Analysts or any other method used:
1. They are actually all alike. The each require learning, research and study.
2. They are only dissimilar in how they arrive at a "prediction / forecast".
3. You say that chartists get it wrong some times and only gloat when they get it right. You may be right, however, i don't see many people who use fundamentals rushing to post on the erroneous measure of a company's value!!! We are human, we like to speak up when we get something right, we like to brush it under the carpet when we don't (chartists or otherwise.)
4. Chartists don't need to be right ALL THE TIME. Neither do people who study the fundamentals of any given company. The most thorough research can be stymied by an environmental factor no matter how you like to dice it up. Fact is, depending on how much you risk on each trade, you don't need to be right ALL THE TIME. You need to be right more often than you are wrong and you need to make sure then when you are wrong you don't lose multiples of what you risk and when you are right you make multiples of what you risk. Chartists make money like this. However, this is not just good charting alone, it is common sense. At a set stake, with a set return, you only need to be correct on more ocassions than you are incorrect and you are in the money. I could go on, but i think you get the drift.

So, as i said, i am not a chartist. It does pique my interest, but since i am not learned in that arena, i leave it alone. I can see that many people may fail using charts (they make more wrong calls than right ones), but i can see how other diligent and dedicated people could do very well from such processes and associated systems.

That's my view for what it is worth. Very little i would naturally assume.