The proliferation of retail platforms - those digital canvases for charting lines, squares, triangles, and loud proclamations over price charts-has turned technical analysis into a peculiar form of art: charting. Meaningless and merciless, it has captivated the hearts and souls of retail investors, who draw lines upon lines, filling social media feeds, even lifestyle Instagrams, with their creations. Today, this is what we call technical analysis. The visual appeal is understandable.
Technical analysis is a set of visual charting tools and statistical methods for price pattern and trend recognition used to predict stock and financial markets, find opportunities, and support trading decisions. When we say that technical analysis is a “set,” we imply that technical analysis as a discipline is not cohesive. It is not truly a theory. It is not a science. It is an eclectic collection of empirical methods, approaches, “theories”, and ways of forecasting prices using the price itself, or more precisely, its past history.