To add to the discussion, I hope, (rather than having this ascribed to a hidden agenda) I'd like to go into the biorythm point more, perhaps then it'll become obvious why I posted what I did and it'll be viewed with less suspicion - I believe the point is important.
It is a central tenet, I would suggest, of TA that you trade what you see, rather than what you think is going to happen, or even worse 'ought' to happen. This pattern is usually followed by a 10% rise makes sense, this share ought to be priced 10% higher because bread is a staple is typical 'I lost all my money but I was right' rubbish.
Biorythms are going to identify good and bad days to trade - sorry, whether you are trading well or not is something you discover after the event, not something you predict EXCEPT I would agree that commonsense (dodgy ground warning) suggests it's usually not a good trading day if you just buried the wife and kids. (You may, on the other hand, trade at your best when you don't care what happens, as you are naturally too cautious).
To 'not trade' because Biorythms predict you won't do well is stupid, we are all different - I would agree that over time you could build up a sort of psychological profile of yourself that logged how you felt etc against how you trade, but the fact is that some of us trade better under stress, others need calm to deliver. To maintain a record of how you felt when placing trades might well be instructive, I'm not big on psychology in general but I'll accept it can work out for some people if they get into this sort of area. To be able to say 'I won't trade today, because I always trade badly on days like this' has some basis in reality - you have identified conditions that tend to suggest you don't trade well, and are reining in on those days. I would, personally, at least 'paper trade' on those days to check I wasn't actually doing darn well and missing out.
You know you are trading badly, you lose money. Staying out because you know you trade badly when your mood is such and such is defensable, although I would still say you ought to paper trade to see if the prediction was probably correct. (Probably, as real trading and paper trading don't always match). To trade because biorythms say you ought is a sure sign, in my view, that you are going to lose money as a TA trader.
None of the above should be taken as criticism of Updata - I am surprised that they included this in UTA, personally I suspect they thought it a gimmick to catch a few extra punters, but they are a commercial company trying to make a buck and if it helps sales then I don't blame them for doing it. The user is free to use or ignore the biorythms - again, this absolves Updata... I'd be critical of them if it were not optional! I am simply arguing a TA point here, Updata is incidental to it - I am arguing not against them, but against anyone who believes Biorythms have a place here for determining days to trade.
I advertise in one magazine, published in the USA. I sell primarily to the US market. I have suggested 'competitors' to people who email me - there are people on this board who I've said 'try Updata' to. Updata produce a good program, Jeremy Du Plessis has a labour of love going here, and I can identify with that readily enough. My annual income is quite nice, Pfscan almost covers my mouse mat bill. (Almost)
Dave
