PNV - Chart, page-14007

charting works because large institutional buyers use various methodologies to accumulate and distribute around averages and such. Algorithms are programmed in such a way that one can also trade around them by observing their footprint. This is the higher level of charting imo.

To your point though - yes I agree that for the most part many people trade all the standard patterns that thousands of books have written about - however smart money exploits this thinking and that is their edge. A truly scientific charter trades like an institutional trader or investor. It is no small feat and you're unlikely to encounter these individuals in the retail space.

Buy and hold is a fine model to use provided your time horizon is long enough. But don't try and kid yourself that you'd love to had sold the top and used that profit to accumulate an even larger position at adiscount in the base structure. That's an edge that I think is worth pursuing and the only thing stopping an individual from acquiring those skills is that individual.