Momentum trading versus Technical Analysis

As a momentum trader, I'm a big proponent of charts. However, I'm not a big believer in traditional technical analysis.  Here we have the classical patterns.  Simple right?  Except the charts never look like this:

They look like this.

 A real chart has wide ranging bars some are meaningful some not so much.  For the above chart, you could make a case that this chart broke out of a wedge but then it also could be forming a head and shoulders top.  It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Instead of trying to look at clouds and play make believe, I take the approach that there are certain objective truths we can see from charts. I most frequently trade momentum strategies.

These are my truths:

• Stocks go through periods of range contraction and range expansion periods.
• A stock that goes into contraction bullish trending is most likely to have range expansion in that direction. 
• Range expansion often lasts 3 to 5 days depending how much energy has built up.

• Momentum trading allows me to take advantage to this phenomenon with lower   
• If I anticipate the range expansion I can place tighter stops and put more size on the trade and manage my risk  
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