"technical analysis is similar to consumer behaviour studies. it...

"technical analysis is similar to consumer behaviour studies. it highlights the footprints that buyers leave behind and narrows the risk factor, thats all."

Fair enough, but a little delving into it seems to say there's so much more to it than that. Fibonacci dates, numerology, astrological stuff -- some truly mystical stuff. Some people even seem to get the ideas of cause and effect reversed -- the reasoning seems to be that because the markets have to crash (or whatever their charting theory tells them is due to happen in the future), then there will be a major news event (such as a terrorist attack) in that time frame.

I got a sense that's what Voltaire was implying in one of his posts a few days ago -- did I misunderstand? He seemed also to be implying that the charts revealed a glimpse of deeply connected "cycles" that connect all sorts of disparate phenomena far beyond anything the mainstream scientific community would countenance.

How much or how little of these "alternative" (i.e., outside the scientific mainstream) world-views do the educated technical folks buy into? Are there technical analysis theories that are more compatible with the more standard world-views?

-Mark