I've been asked why I stopped providing annotations of daily charts. I replied at the time and since that there are only so many principles, and not very many of those. At some point, either one sees no value in them, in which case nothing is accomplished by continuing to provide redundant examples, or one does see value in them but doesn't know what to do next.

This thread is about what to do next.

As before, there will no discussion of indicators since the chief effect of these discussions is to flatten the learning curve. Posts which address indicators will be deleted. And while one can load one's charts with as many indicators as he or she likes in the privacy of his or her own home, those charts will be deleted. One of the goals of this thread will be to make things simple, not to add unnecessary layers of complexity.

Learning how to trade using price and volume and their relationship requires a certain way of thinking about the market, a certain way of seeing. If one gets stuck in a mudhole after taking the wrong turn at the detour, one must first extricate himself from the mud before he can back up and try another route; if one has learned a certain way of thinking about and seeing the market, much of that may have to be unlearned before one can begin to distinguish between appearance and reality.

This process can be extremely frustrating, even painful, and those who choose not to subject themselves to it are welcome to pursue their particular interests on one or more of the many threads available, or start new ones.

As a starting point, I suggest that one think about the three basic approaches -- breakouts, reversals, and retracements/continuations -- and work toward developing at least one primary bread-and-butter strategy for each. One may want to focus on just breakouts, for example, to begin with, if the idea of developing three is overwhelming. But he must understand that the fewer tools he has available, the fewer opportunities he may find and the less he will be trading. Some may find this a relief. Others will find it intolerable.

The original thread will remain, though I will be condensing it as much as possible, eliminating, for example, quoted posts since there's no point in having both the original and the quote. I'd like to go through all the charts again and make them more consistent with regard to the use of color and symbols and abbreviations, and that may happen someday, but don't hold your breath. The principles don't rely on color, and readers are much more likely to be interested in what happened yesterday than they are in a chart from March. And there are also the detailed files available at the Yahoo site (click Files, below), the most important of which are, after the Introduction ("What's A Chart?"), the Demand/Supply file and the uploads on support and resistance. Those alone can provide a shock to the system from which many do not recover.