I hope you don't mind me responding to your question here as this is where I normally post.
You asked: "Can you suggest some background reading to start to come to an understanding of your methods ??"
I'm not sure I know how to geniunely answer this question. I'm am avid reader but my knowledge of different concepts is fairly broad rather than specific. My trading methods incorporate both TA and cycle/astro stuff (there you go - I've publicly admitted to dabbling with what Voltaire would refer to "exploring chicken guts" lol).
For example, my call last night - knowing that the high would probably come in around the opening bell and the low at the close was based on a astro reading and my targets were based purely on some simple TA methods of trendlines and fibs.
My method is just that - my method. You need to find what works for you.....and that requires time and patience and lots of reading and practice .....and more importantly having a broad mind and willingness to take onboard concepts that many would consider wacky/insane.
I am still a novice. I am still learning and probably will continue to do so as long as the markets maintain my interest. :)
Like Treggs (or I should say thanks to Treggs), I also use multiple moving averages which work well in defining trends on multiple timeframes as well as defining areas of support/resistance. Guppy has done lots of work in this arena - but like Tregss, I have developed my own sets of moving averages that work for me.
Fwiw - one of my sets of moving averages that is based on longer timeframes suggest that the present trend is flat not down.
However, it should be noted that in the past, I have found that this has played out in two ways.
One being that the market essentially plays within a trading range until it came build in some positive divergence over time. For example, following the 1987 crash, the US market was stuck in a fairly tight trading range for about a year.
The other alternative is the more dangerous one....and one that we need to be conscience that there is a possibility of it playing out here and now....and that is that a trendless market can lead to outright failure at important support levels - like in 2001 (with the U.S. market finally bottoming out in 2002 and retesting in 2003.
These are just my worhtless opinion which anyone can take with a grain of salt.
(20min delay)