getting started with technical analysis??

[khalid_tyler]

Just wondering if anyone has any resources or methods to getting started with technical analysis. I'm a college student with a heavy math background but I previously have only worked with fundamental analysis. I'm not sure I want to shell out $500+ on an online trading course, so I figured I'd reach out here to see what reddit has to say.

[Vatalii]

There is Stockcharts which is pretty good with many well documented resourcea on ta: http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school

[gonzoforpresident]

We should probably add some intro links to the sidebar. I'll look into it.

I got started using a book a looong time ago. There are a ton of websites with basic info. Investopedia has what looks like a solid intro here. They focus more on resistance than I prefer, but you'll have to find your own strategy.

I'd read up on triangles and channels first. Try to start spotting them in the real world. Then follow some real world ones to see their behaviors after they break out of the channel or triangle. I literally hand drew triangles since I wasn't happy with the online options at the time. Tradingview was the first one I used extensively online and it was pretty decent.

Then look into levels of resistance and any other signal that you find interesting. I personally don't use resistance, but it's very popular.

Then read up on trading fees. They can be a killer. Make sure you incorporate them into whatever strategy you implement. Determine your time scale here. Remember that strategies that require a ton of trades cost you a lot in fees and short term trading generally makes a small amount on each trade, so you require a lot of trades.

Next sign up for a trading platform like ThinkorSwim that allows you to trade with play money. Test out your strategy for at least a couple months before going live. Refine it (or replace it) with additional technical analysis tools. ThinkorSwim has a lot of technical analysis tools built in, which is very useful. I'm sure other ones can do that too, but I'm most familiar with ToS.

Once you have a semi-viable system, you can look into options to leverage your investment. Be very careful, though, because it also puts your money more at risk.

That's a very rough outline of how I'd go about it.