I agree. I can tell you, in order to make good use of technical analysis, a person really needs to learn all the essential tools fluently. and it does take some time, like going to school for 4 years, studying a foreign language, to become fluent.
There are about 4 or 5 tools to learn, none of them are so complicated or too hard to learn, it just takes time
But if you begin , there are some tools that you can make use of fairly quickly, and the more you study it the better your vision becomes.
The wave pattern theory, lets call it a tool. I'm beyond the idea of a theory....its a tool that works. It does work. The theory of Elliott wave is that there are emotional/psychological social forces that move stock prices. They explain it with that framework, describing the impulse of a first rally wave, the pullback tha follows, then the big wave 3 which is where the strong force of buying or selling jumps in, etc.... the cultural psychology of bear markets and bull markets that can be see in social developments and also in stock market charts. But while all that is interesting to consider, its not essential to follow those concepts in order to use the technical tool to find what a stock will do as it moves through the wave structure and patterns. After a few years of watching how this forecasting tool works, that's all I need to know that I want to use Elliott wave as part of my technical analysis.
Its not too hard to learn how to use Elliott wave.
and its very interesting to see it play out in the daily and weekly price action, . I cant say it works 100 % all the time, but it does work 80-85 % all by itself.
That's one key tool.
Another tool is Candle stick analysis. That might take a bit longer to learn, but its also good to learn. at least the basics.
There are many good websites that will offer teaching for free, various web sites, like Baby Pips, or any that come up with a google search. Its NOT necessary to use a paid service to learn. I did actually subscribe to a few newsletter trading services that also taught basic TA and I learned some good things, but overall, you can learn the tools for free . Probably stockcharts.com might have a lot of education forums there. Its really an easy google search to find a million places to learn the tools. even You tube videos are some good places. But the more different teachers you find, there will also be a few that are not so great, some are better than others, you'd get to know who sounds worth studying and who is just ok.
and you can always bounce things off me if you have questions or get stuck in things.
If you google ...Prechter's EWI ...and see if you can find somewhere on the website a free booklet they could mail you, that teaches the basic wave structure of Elliott wave, that's a good way to start. or any other web site that will teach the basics .
If you feel drawn to anything, any skill, any interest, that sparks a feeling of a good thing that means something worthwhile... then you owe it to yourself to study it.
I felt that way about learning TA. Its a good foreign language to learn. every day, you come to see the charts better and better.
Elliott wave is a good place to start.