...Personally I find it works, but how would I know if ta worked a lot better 10 years ago, and therefore might be even less applicable in another 5 years....
Dave, a market stall owner sold fruit. He sold a lot of oranges. When he first started trading, he sold them for 5p each. They sold better than whisky at an alcoholics anonymous meeting. He put them up to 10p, still sold... 20p, 30p... Obviously good oranges.
At 30p the sales started slowing down, he dropped them to 25p and they were selling again. Dave, being a greedy bugger went to 35p and business was okay. Jumped up to 45p and only a few went here and there. Things started to peak. He dropped back down to 40p, then 35p... business was still slow... He went back down to 30p, things picked up and he saw all his old customers come back. He kept them there for a little while, then as things stayed constant, he started to push prices up again. The same thing happened at 45p as they were again, too expensive.
This time, a stall opened next to him with even juicier oranges. Dave had to drop prices to 30p again but still no good, he had a bit of interest.. but he had to go back to 25p...
Economists and bloomberg analysts said after the event that it was the new stall, the fact it started raining oranges and something else to do with America probably, technical analysts looked at the stats in a chart, saw key levels sat at 25p, 30p, an 45p.
Supply, demand, support, resistance. Call it what you will and view it through FA or TA, but at the end of the day, TA always works.