G'day Glen and allI would never argue that T/A is the be all and...

G'day Glen and all
I would never argue that T/A is the be all and end all, far from it. However, a couple of quotes I don't agree with.
"there is no way to predict future stock price movements from charts.
And anyway, trend lines are a matter of opinion."

Of course you can predict, not necessarily correctly, however sticking to the basics and on a medium time frame the chances are better than random. Not on all charts, if the trend isn't clear, well its not really a trend.
For example bhp is a stock I casually watch but don't hold. In the period prior to sept 11, it seems obvious (to me anyway) that bhp was trending down, lower highs and lower lows. Then after 9/11 it started obviously trending up (to me anyway) higher lows and higher highs. Then in march I noticed it failed to make a higher high and watched for it to break its lower trend line which would indicate a possible fall. It did that and continued to make a series of lower lows etc. ie downtrend. Currently what may be a higher low has formed, now looking for a higher high and break of the upper trend line (if you can see it- tip - join the tops of the upper peaks) to establish a new up trend. Its not rocket science and its certainly not infallable. Same goes for fundemental analysis.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
Rod