If everyone uses technical analysis, doesn’t it stop working?

[corevaluecapital]

Nice explanation! But could you tell me how using different timeframes can result in the market behaving differently while everyone is basically making decisions based on what the indicators are showing?!

Great question, and this is exactly where most people misunderstand indicators.


Even if two traders use the exact same indicator, the timeframe completely changes the signal’s meaning. A 5-minute RSI reading might flip from overbought to oversold in minutes, while the 1-hour RSI could still be trending in one direction. Same tool, totally different context.


Because of this:


Shorter timeframes react to noise

They show micro-structure and fast liquidity shifts.


Higher timeframes reflect the broader market regime

Trend, momentum, volatility cycles, etc.


Traders anchor to the timeframe they trust

Scalpers will react to tiny fluctuations, while swing traders ignore them and follow the higher timeframe structure.

So the market isn’t everyone seeing the same thing. It’s millions of people reacting to different versions of the same indicator based on their timeframe, risk tolerance, position size, and strategy logic. That creates conflicting orders, which is why price behaves the way it does.



This is also why I built my system the way I did, it doesn’t rely on a static indicator reading. It layers multiple timeframes, directional logic, volatility filters, and math-based rules. The algo interprets context instead of reacting blindly to a single indicator flash.


When you combine timeframe context + directional math + filters, the indicator becomes useful again, because you’re no longer interpreting it the same way everyone else is.