"...based on my firm belief the market is never rational nor efficient..."
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itsallover...
Are you casting aspersions on the markets?? Short term you are certainly correct, but there is usually an element of rationality over the longer term - sometimes it just takes longer than others for it to assert itself. At any given point in time, the market is all about perception, and perception that gets reinforced by news and data produces a trend. As long as that trend is in effect, it is reality for anyone who wants to make money in the market and fighting that reality only produces losses. It is efficient only to the extent that all the players in the market are equally and fully informed of all the true facts about the economy and the companies being traded and intelligent enough to act on that information in an unemotional manner - and that should give you a clue about how efficient the markets are.
That about sums up why technical analysis works - it is not a measure of what is or will be happening with all the various sectors and companies - that is for fundamental analysis to assess. Technical analysis is instead a measure of all the ebbs and flows of the perceptions and emotions of all the folks that buy and sell the stocks, which in the final analysis is all that counts. If we can predict that, we will make money.
That does not make fundamental analysis worthless though. It is used to predict whether the current perceptions will be reinforced or changed. The task of reading and understanding technical analysis is made easier by knowing the fundamentals of the company, the sector, and the economy. Because of the relationship between the two, the shorter the trading time frame, the less fundamental analysis enters into the picture, other than to help avoid unexpected news that is negative to one's position.
Just my two bits.
mlsoft
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
