About posting charts.
The standard complaint is that threads like this are all theory and no practice. All thought and no action. Let's post "real" charts (like a chart that's a day old is any different from a chart that's a week old, or a month old) and talk about them. So somebody posts a chart and nobody says anything, including the individual who pressed for posting the charts in the first place. This naturally discourages the person who posted the chart and he stops posting them, and nobody else picks up the slack. And you're back where you started.
What inexperienced traders miss is that we trade not the markets but our perceptions of the markets. When A looks at a chart, he sees something different than B does because he's looking for different things. And if B has no idea what A is looking for or why he's looking for it, there's not much to say unless he interprets it in his own way, which is generally of interest only to someone who hasn't a clue and is looking to borrow somebody else's strategy and tactics.
Therefore, if one wants to post a chart to illustrate some point, then that's a public service and always welcomed. However, if one is seeking comment on the chart, then he must explain what it is he's trying to do and why he's trying to do it. Otherwise, whoever looks at the chart is forced to interpret it based on what he himself is looking for, which may have no pertinence to what the poster is looking for.
Therefore, anyone looking for anything substantive should explain his strategy and tactics so that others can say something intelligent. Otherwise, whatever comments are made are likely to be along the lines of "nice chart". If one doesn't want to do that, I see no reason to post a chart other than to illustrate a point, as mentioned above. In that case, no comment is expected, and no one's feelings are hurt if none is forthcoming.
