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- 28 December 2013
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For a start I don't believe there should be a Technical Analysis V Fundamental Analysis. In my opinion a trader/investor should use both and to the best of that person's ability. I am stronger at TA as I am visual and can see patterns quickly and easily. I can recognize when a chart is going up as opposed to down. This is not as simple as it sounds. You need to practice recognizing this.
Some people look at a chart for a three month period and it looks as though it is rising. If you look at the same chart for five, ten or even fifteen years, it may be falling with a massive downward overhead trendline/resistance line which can cut your trade right out with a single blow. I still struggle with FA but recently looking at Luu's FA charts I am bginning to see some interesting things I had never seen before. I am beginning to see what is potentially important FA information. I just needed to see that stuff on a chart.
I worry sometimes when people quote companies' "fundamentals" and then parrot the bullsh!t story line put out to catch the gullible.
There is always an underlying reason for the price of a company at any given time. It is the entire combination of all the FA known and the insider information that is reflected in the price.
Neither FA nor TA can save you from a massive price collapse but normally a serious price collapse tends to only happen to a stock when it has been travelling sideways at a higher level or has already started falling.
My favourite TA tools - Very long historical views of a company, hand drawn support and resistance/trend lines, Positive Volume Index, MACD, volume, swing trade calculations, certain patterns and I am now beginning to look at Fibonacci levels as well.
TA does not have to be this complicated though. Just recognizing the price up ( rising support line), price top across (overhead resistance line), price down shape (falling overhead resistance line) price bottom across (support line) is good enough for a person who feels more comfortable with FA.
Short term trading is really only viable using TA. Setting entry and exit levels is critical for successful trading IMO regardless if you are going long or short.
Bottom line, I would never enter a longer term trade without doing a full TA and to the best of my abilities FA analysis. Using only one technique is like fighting a battle with only one arm.
Ann, reading chart patterns & researching the fundamentals of a company is subjective & is wholly in the eye of the beholder as the interpretation can differ from one trader to another.
Fundamental analysis (No - it's not for me)
Fundamental analysis is no (fun) to carry out & it's time consuming, basically a background check of how company has performed and operated in the past assuming the information passed on is accurate.
The problems with Chart Patterns (I don't know what will happen tomorrow let alone using hindsight to determine it)
Patterns looks good in the middle of the chart when you can only trade at the hard right edge. We all tend to be experts looking at chart patterns in hindsight.
Coding (yes, I can relate to this method of trading as it gives me confidence to place a trade - a mechanical trading system)
Coding a trading idea stands head & shoulders above all the other tools available to me in my trading tool box.(IMHO)
Coding a strategy works for me & for others it's probably a different kettle of fish.
What's the nice thing about people
They are all different
What's the nice thing about traders
They are all different
Skate