Technical Analysis as a buy op "criteria" - LOL
Stock Charting / TA / Chicken Bones Analysis / Tea Leaves
My viewpoint below refers to my own perspective on trusting any stock chart past time frame combined with one’s various selections of their preferred TA plotting.
IMO: With the sheer amount of money, emotions, and action in the market, the old TA written rules just do not apply. I have found 'trading by charts' not to be relative to current market trading. Perception becomes reality very quickly in this mass money momentum market. Charting or 'tossing the bones' analysis can be fun if you are not a chart-aholic. I also do not need to check my horoscope in the morning to see what is going to happen today, nor do I need to check it in the evening to justify that it somehow applies to the day’s events that have now passed.
Stock price action is redirected on a moment-by-moment basis on the current sum knowledge of All the market players and their actions, or their inaction, at any given moment in time. A chart analysis (of PAST EVENTS) is quite lovely to look at, fun to do, and is rendered obsolete the moment the market moves again in real time based on all the current reasons that are known NOW, that were not known just a moment prior (in real time), that the chart history (since chart trading is looking backwards to 'look' forward) does not include (simply because it IS based on history/trades of the Past Events).
In brief: Overall Perception will always become Reality very quickly in this global mass money momentum market. With the Sheer Amount of money, emotions (fear/greed/twits), big and small players, program trading, 401K's, mutual funds, and trader action now in the market, the old TA written rules just do not apply. Just because we as Traders/Investors will never know all that sum knowledge at each given moment a price action changes (We may not know, but that does not mean it does not exist to cause an action/reaction), some of us (not I) still like to chart the past events with TA indicators to try to foretell the near future. That's the problem with the future; it changes constantly based on the next set of current events/news/actions that have yet to occur.
A chart review of past events if you throw Enough TA at it can be viewed to make you conclude you should be able to anticipate direction, problem being that since you (nor I) do not really know everything (see: sum knowledge) about the stock, nor what event may occur next to invalidate your colorful nice plot, you may as well be tossing chicken bones each morning prior to 9:30am. - Try to base your own trading decisions on your own DD, evaluation, constant re-evaluation, and observations (try to think longer intervals with stock reactions with perspective to the company results and company/products potential). Everyone has to do their own DD, and then draw and constantly evaluate their own conclusions (and they will...), and then place their own bets accordingly.
The different Various Opinions (of all the market players - not just referring to the few posters here) all translate into various actions, which may translate into various market action, which makes the stock market the great grand chess game that it is. I enjoy That Market Game and respect all of the players here that actually have their own money in play, and not just their mouth.
BTW: You can be quite good at stock symbol charting, but if you intend to bet your own money on it, being good at charting should not make you believe it!
Regards, NETMAN