I find it odd when some people claim "indicators" do or do not "work". I also find it odd when I hear some people claim they dont use "any" indicators. If you use ANYTHING other than tape of the security you are trading, you ARE using indicators, as was just mentioned. Now, as for whether or not they "work", that depends on what you mean - lots of indicators "work", but the caveat is that everything is dependent on the underlying data they are based on. If they are BASED on price (past price obviously), then they WILL LAG THAT DATA, no matter how they are computed, and so I understand, and to some extent agree with those that find it cleaner and simpler and most importantly, most timely, to just be rid of them and use price alone. For those that hope lagging indicators will forecast future movement, they are often WRONG, which typically negates any edge the trader has on the occasions when they DO forecast correctly future movement, hence most traders LOSE MONEY.
Having said that, I do see the value of using some indicators if they help to visually explain what HAS happened, in the past (which is of dubious merit, IMO). On the other hand, using indicators such as
POC/VAL/VAH and pivots do not LAG prices even though they are calculated on past data, and therefore can at times be useful to support or confirm the trades based on price data. More useful than indicators BASED on current prices that are then intended to forecast future movement. Just my 2 cents.
W