Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : PSFT - Fiscal 1998 - Discussion for the next year -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chuzzlewit who wrote (1876)	8/24/1998 2:18:00 PM
From: Melissa McAuliffe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4509

Chuzz, I am not trying to keep peace on this thread but offering something in the middle. It happens to be what I believe. Though to be quite honest I hate it when the discussions deteriorate into personal attacks on what someone has read or hasn't read, where they went to school (or if they did<g>),etc.etc. Personally I like the fundamental discussions. I like the TA discussions. I can't give you examples of where TA has been proven accurate any % of the time. Because TA isn't just one thing. There are so many different way to view a chart, look at indicators, etc. that much of TA becomes unique to the individual using it. I'm sure I don't use it the way someone else does. There are however, things that most people use consistently, i.e. support & resistance, trendlines, moving averages and volume. Then there all the tons of indicators and the different variation of those. e.g. momentum (which has been mentioned numerous times on this thread) is a TA indicator. When a stock doesn't have it, it's not usually going anywhere. I am no expert in TA, that's for sure. But I do use it all the time. Something I've found to be very interesting is that more often than not it can help me predict the stock price movement....particularly shorter term. Sure it's not always right. And I'm sure I'm not always using it the right way either. (It took me at least a week to figure out how to find support and resistance and even then I sometimes have a hard time with this) But it works for me. That's not to say I ignore fundamentals either because I believe just as strongly in those. If you make your decisions solely on fundamentals what TA can do it simply help you with the timing. Here's a good example. A stock has heavy end of day volume and closes at the top of it's trading range. That is usually (I said usually not always) predictive of at least a gap up in the morning. The fundamentals didn't change between 3 and 4pm. So how can this be? Where it goes from there who knows....but it usually does open up given no major world crisis overnight. From a long term perspective who cares if it opens up or down in the morning. I'm just using this as an example. Personally I believe in it because it just makes sense to me. I'm not comparing it to fundamental or financial analysis because it is something totally different. You can say psft is a strong company with excellent fundamentals and will get no argument from me. And from a purely long term buy and hold perspective you are correct. I guess the point here is that everyone here has different investment strategies and methodologies. When I first heard about TA I was like you. I didn't believe it was anything but voodoo or whatever you call it.<g> But I guess that was because I didn't understand it. But after I read about it and learned about it, I saw how it worked and why. I guess the bottom line here is that each of us is going to do what works for us anyway. I've learned a lot from you. I've learned a lot from others here on SI also. So that's what's good about this...there are just so many differing opinions and different approaches. But in the final analysis each of us has to do what's right for us....after all, it's our money. Melissa