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Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

#11

Post by marcofiset »

zscoops wrote: post #10
marcofiset wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of which the vast majority cannot consistently beat index funds.

Someone suggested adding a comparison to the backtest results, showing the profit and loss from buying and holding the asset versus the profit and loss from the user-defined strategy. I think this is really interesting to see. Unfortunately, I don't have data on the performance of professional traders, so I can't say whether most of them beat index funds. If you have any sources, I would love to see them.

Plenty of sources cited in this article: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/want-to-outperform-92-of-pro...

Re: Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

#13

Post by al_borland »

downrightmike wrote: post #3

Drawing imaginary lines on charts with crayons for dummies? TA seems to mostly be astrology for finance.

The thing that makes technical analysis work is that other people are also using it. If a bunch of people/machines that make trade decisions see that a stock has some resistance at 115, because it's bounced off it several times before, they are more likely to anticipate that happening again and act accordingly. Since everyone does that, the predicted action happens. Then eventually there are other things that happen that drive it past that point, and people move on to the next set of signals.

If enough people believe it's true, it becomes true.

I don't use it currently, but I dabbled with it when I was younger (not as the only thing I looked at).

Re: Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

#15

Post by zscoops »

akg_67 wrote: post #14

Try some of the subreddits related to investing and trading that might be inclined to use TA for example /r/Trading, /r/StocksAndTrading, /r/thewallstreet, /r/RealDayTrading, /r/DayTrading, /r/algotrading …

Thanks! I wasn't aware of some of the subreddits you listed.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

#18

Post by Gooblebrai »

downrightmike wrote: post #3

Drawing imaginary lines on charts with crayons for dummies? TA seems to mostly be astrology for finance.

The big difference as others pointed out if that regardless of how many people believe in astrology, nature will do whatever it wants.

Financial markets, to a certain extent, can be manipulated by people. If enough of them believe that when the face of Jesus appears in the chart they need to sell, the price will go down.

Re: Ask HN: Looking for traders that use technical analysis

#19

Post by throwaway211 »

marcofiset wrote: post #8
pillefitz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technical indicators are the bread and butter of professional traders.

Of which the vast majority cannot consistently beat index funds.

Clearly their tools are not good enough. /s

Prices are made by humans, including the edge case of automation where instructions are still human.

On average not beating an average where there are transaction and membership fees is therefore expected, it could not be any other way. That doesn't however make the index the best predictor of itself.

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