Whether or not you believe in TA, doesn't the fact that most trading is now done by computers deal it a serious (possibly fatal) blow?
Trending Content - Sales and Trading Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
August 31, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
All the Analysis I do is technical, so I guess I'll wait for someone else to answer this properly. My own answer is -> TA is only as good as the Strat/Quant/Programmer who writes the algorithms to crunch the data. Quite often I've seen the guys on the desk send back the analyses as not quite being "right".
Apart from that, there are always freak situations that require a human eye. TA will definitely eliminate a lot of "vanilla" analysis, but there will always be room for the human edge.... at least for a while.
PS - I didn't quite get the reference to HFT in this post.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, what I meant was that since TA assumes that price action is caused by human behavior, which generally fits into patterns that have a tendency to repeat over and over, but now its mostly HFT machines doing the trading, those technicals shouldn't really exist anymore.
HFT traders hold the position for a very short period of time. The technical analysis is conducted on price actions over a time frame that's mainly influenced by human traders.
I’m afraid I don’t follow. I don’t see why it matters for the purposes of TA how long the position is held. And isn’t a longer time frame simply a combination of a bunch of shorter time frames?
from what Ive read , high frequency trading generally isn't about placing directional bets where you are speculating on prices, its more about arbing the tiny spreads and scalping pennies off of trades. so if you are using some technical indicators to speculate on whether the price of security will be falling or rising within a specific time frame, I don't believe that the existence of HFT renders the indicator ineffective. For example, if your technical indicators tell you that XYZ is oversold, then thats a sign that investors are selling too much and it might be time to go long. HFT doesnt change that fact that investors are generally bearish on XYZ at that moment.
Ah I understand now thanks guys
Ut hic nihil aliquid. Molestiae et ut qui ut qui suscipit. Et occaecati culpa accusamus omnis tempore.
Quia molestiae sit ratione magnam. Et et blanditiis error quibusdam saepe. Nisi possimus at et in doloremque cupiditate doloribus.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...