Don't fall into the trap of searching for the Holy Grail of technical analysis? There are traders who try one indicator for awhile and when success doesn't come, they move on to another hoping to find profits hidden within the indicator itself? At one time I did this too!
The truth be told, several indicators work well, if you really know how to read them. The lack of success in trading often comes not from not having the "right" indicator, but from not learning to read it properly. A logical examination will tell you this is true. Almost all indicators are built using the open, close, high, low and volume, or some of these. There are only so many relevant combinations of this data. So while a pursuit in an indicator that will provide you with magical insight that no one else has, sounds adventures, it is futile.
The key is not just finding the right technical tools. There are several useful charting tools available. The key is learning which ones to use together and to use them properly! This is the "art of trading". While it is an art, it is not hard to learn, but honestly it does take time. If it didn't we would all be millionaires!
The problem many face today, is that we live in an instant gratification society. So many habitually, if they don't get what they are looking for immediately, look somewhere else, when in some cases, like trading, all you have to do is exert yourself a little to really understand how an indicator works and you can find the success you were looking for. This is only one of the pit falls new traders suffer from.
It reminds me of when I was a little child and my father would take me fishing. I was so impatient. I would throw my line in and if a fish didn't bite within a minute, I would reel it in and cast it out somewhere else. My Dad, would smile, while he patiently waited with his line in place. At the end of the afternoon, as usual, we would go home. I would be empty handed and he would be carrying 3 or 4 fish.
So what is needed is knowledge and a systematic way of applying that knowledge so your success or failure can be measured.. A streamed lined way to gain a systematic application of knowledge is the "franchise method" like in real business.
The path of oneness.
Don't make the same mistake many new traders make!
Don't try to be one of those who attempt to learn on their own and usually end up losing their capital in the process. This risk is very real as my experience will show.
It happened to me, don't let it happen to you: When I first began to trade, I spent a short time educating myself and thought I was ready to go. I started trading and started making some money. The excitement and my confidence built up! Within a short time however, my losses started to catch up with my winnings. I would enter a trade, get stopped out and then to my dismay, I would see the price start climbing the next day. Frustration started to set in.
It wasn't long before I started to panic which caused me on occasion to widen my stop losses on losing positions in hopes they would reverse themselves, which only resulted in larger losses. Within a year I had single handedly destroyed almost half of my trading account.
Words alone could not tell the frustration I felt, as I knew of other traders who were raking in profits month in and month out, so I knew it could be done. That's when I decided to get serious. I stopped trading, at least with real money. I took a few short courses and stared reading more books and even wasted time in search of the Holy Grail. Over the next couple of years and several reams of paper later I paper traded and recorded everything I did. Every win and every loss documented to the last small detail of the trade, looking for the common thread of success.
In my case the saying was true, "I couldn't see the trees, because the forest was in the way", but when I had finally put enough pieces of the puzzle together, I began to understand what I was looking at. When I finally found out what worked, I was amazed at how simple it was. It was like the combination to a safe. Just a little error made the difference between success and failure. Success had come, but it was a long, hard road and an expensive one.
Only Indiana Jones was successful in searching for the Holy Grail!
