[notouch]

Newbies often get frustrated with TA because they use it incorrectly. Typically they'll do something like put RSI on a 5 minute chart and buy every time the line crosses above 30 and sell every time the line crosses below 70. Or they may buy every time they see a hammer on the 2 minute charts. They'll lose money and conclude "technical analysis doesn't work". TA is just a way of reading the markets. Looking at the daily YM chart for example we can see a double bottom then a rally then a 50% pullback of the rally then a doji then a dragonfly doji. What's that telling you? It's telling you supply was cut off at the low, then strong buyers came in but the buyers took the price too far up so it retraced but then strong buyers came in again. Using TA to read the markets we could see that a further rally was a strong possibility and the market acted as expected.

Also TA isn't just about candles and indicators. Volume analysis and Market Profile are forms of technical analysis.