You have really nailed it. What we want is the newcomer to actually DO something rather than hang around for a tip. Thats why I didn't even give the title for the books.
Personally I find charting too complex for my simple brain. You always seem to need one more input to make them reliable. I went to the Guppy website once where they discuss for days on end the reliability of inputs -- but there are better things to do in life.
Example -- I hold KCN -- A chartist friend said when they fell through $7.00 they were going to retreat and "respect" a $5.00 support point. Nothing of the kind happened -- a US fund [ mellion ?] stood in the market from $5.70 to $6.00 and bought and sold as required to keep the market in KCN soft and took all the supply for 6 weeks.
I think Markus Padley in the Sydney Morning Herald nailed it best -- if a shareprice is the perfect summation of all market knowledge why was it selling for $1.10 the day before it went into liquidation. Same story for HIH Insur.