Most of the time, Technical Analysis (TA) can remind a practitioner of “A Tale of Two Cities.” Either price action will respect an approaching support/resistance area (and reverse) or breakthrough (and continue in the current direction). I have been a student of TA and model building for decades and have faced this dichotomy many times. My solution was to create a nonlinear process to guide in what the market was most likely to be thinking.
Isn’t that cheating? What are you, 12? Insider trading is cheating, not building a nonlinear model to help in forecasting price. Perhaps we can draw some inspiration from fictional character Master Sergeant Bilko (the movie version), he said, “I like a sporting event in which I know the outcome beforehand, it’s more organized.”
Can’t we build our own nonlinear models internally instead of using CTM signals? Yep, massive spending, hiring titanic sized egos leading to turnover (plus organizational information “leakage”) and you still won’t be guaranteed the resulting model will have the “special sauce” ingredients to get the results you will be satisfied with. However you could use our signals to bridge the gap as you complete your own in-house research.
But you didn’t get an advanced degree at an ivy league school! If you listen real hard you can hear my teeth chatter. LTCM hired big credentialed personalities and ended up being the subject of a cautionary tale gray-hairs tell to scare their pupils during late-night discussions. I have worked at CompuTrac (pioneers in automated technical analysis) and LBS Capital Management (pioneers in artificial intelligence). I am offering my free real-time “slow” S&P 500 signals as a character reference. My fast signals are available to select customers for a quarterly fee.