I don't exactly make a habit of sending people over to the Rolling Stone, but read this article. Please.

I am reading The Heretics of Finance: Conversations with the Leading Practitioners of Technical Analysis, a new book made up entirely of interviews with technical analysts. I'm about halfway through, and it's pretty good, although it must have been a pretty easy book to write since it seems the authors merely mailed out the same questionnaire to about 20 folks and printed their replies.

Some of the quotes are pretty interesting; here are some favorites I've found so far:

"When you're practicing technical analysis, you have to be totally electic, because there will be a time when the approach you're using doesn't work. If you're not flexible, you'll self-destruct" – Ralph Acampora

"The biggest mistake people make is to overburden themselves with indicators. The simpler you keep it, the better it is." – Ralph Acampora

"Technical analysts also go wrong in making dramatic predictions. The best you can do in the market is to give some very strong tendencies and some direction." – Laszlo Birinyi Jr.

"Whenever you think you've got a key to Wall Street, somebody comes along and changes the lock." – Walter Deemer

"Technical analysis is nothing more than a form of measuring supply and demand." – Paul Desmond

"[T]echnical analysis excels at tops and bottoms. It's excellent at defining turning points…fundamental analysis works best in the middle of an economic cycle or in the middle of a bull market." – Gail Dudack

"You have to be comfortable being in the minority. If you're right about the market most of the time, you're going to be in the minority, because the majority is usually wrong." – John Murphy

"When you are a member of a group, the natural tendency is to abdicate responsibility. The best analyst is one who abdicates nothing. He blames or credits only himself." – Robert Prechter