Prices and trends rule, so you have to be able to track and identify them. And
to identify prices and trends, you have to see them. After you become proficient,
you can order your software to “see” trends, but if you are a beginner,
you need to become familiar with the price chart (see Figure 1-1). This chart
shows a classic uptrend following a downtrend.
At the most basic level, your goal as a technical trader is to shun the security
shown on the chart while it’s down trending and to identify the reversal
point — the best place to buy (shown in the circle) — as early as possible.
Figure 1-1 is a good example of the kind of chart with which you spend most of
your time. A chart is the workspace of technical analysis. Technical analysts
have developed numerous indicators based on price and volume that can be
expressed as statistics, tables of numbers, and other formats, but the core
method remains a graphic display of prices in a chart.
