Reading Charts Without the Guesswork
Technical analysis isn't about predicting the future. It's about spotting patterns that have shown up before and using them to make better decisions. We'll walk you through what actually works when you're staring at price movements and trying to figure out your next move.
Core Skills That Connect Everything
Think of technical analysis as a toolkit. Each tool has a specific job, but they all work together to help you understand what's happening in the market right now.
Chart Pattern Recognition
You'll see the same formations pop up over and over. Head and shoulders. Double tops. Triangles. Learning to spot these isn't magic—it's about training your eye to notice when buyers and sellers are having the same argument they've had a hundred times before.
Support and Resistance Levels
Price tends to bounce off certain levels like a ball hitting a floor or ceiling. Sometimes it breaks through. Understanding why these levels matter helps you decide where to enter or exit a position without overthinking it.
Volume Analysis
Price movement without volume is just noise. When you see big moves with weak volume, that tells you something. Strong volume on a breakout? That's a different story. Volume shows you how many people actually care about what's happening.
Indicator Application
Moving averages, RSI, MACD—these are shortcuts that do the math for you. But here's the thing: indicators lag. They're useful for confirming what you already suspect from looking at raw price action, not for telling you what to do.
Timeframe Management
A chart looks completely different on a 5-minute view versus a daily view. You need to know which timeframe matches your strategy. Day traders and long-term position holders are playing different games on the same field.
Risk Assessment
Every trade has a potential downside. Technical analysis helps you spot where that downside becomes too much. Knowing when to cut losses based on what the chart is telling you saves more money than picking perfect entries ever will.
Three Approaches That Actually Get Used
People talk about dozens of strategies, but most traders end up using variations of these three. Pick one that matches how you think and build from there.
Trend Following
The market moves in waves. Trend followers ride those waves for as long as they last. Simple concept, but it requires patience because trends take time to develop and confirm.
- Identify direction using moving averages
- Enter when pullbacks meet support
- Exit when trend structure breaks
- Works best in markets with clear momentum
Range Trading
Some markets just bounce between the same high and low for weeks. Range traders buy near the bottom and sell near the top until something changes. It's boring but consistent when conditions are right.
- Map out clear support and resistance zones
- Wait for price to touch boundaries
- Set tight stops outside the range
- Switch strategies when range breaks
Breakout Trading
Markets consolidate before making big moves. Breakout traders position themselves to catch those explosive movements right as they happen. Higher risk but potentially faster returns.
- Spot consolidation patterns early
- Confirm with volume surge on breakout
- Manage false breakouts with quick exits
- Scale position size based on setup quality
What Makes Technical Analysis Different
You don't need to know anything about a company's earnings or economic reports. Technical analysis assumes that all information that matters is already reflected in the price. Your job is to interpret what that price movement is telling you.
It's a visual approach. You're looking at charts and trying to see what other traders are seeing—or better yet, what they're about to see. When enough people spot the same pattern, they act on it, which makes the pattern work.
The best traders I've met aren't the ones with the most complex systems. They're the ones who understand basic patterns deeply and know when market conditions favor those patterns. Context matters more than sophistication.
Learning From Someone Who's Been There
Siriporn Chaiwong has spent twelve years trading Asian equity markets and teaching others how to read charts without the hype. She started as a fundamental analyst but switched to technical work after realizing price action told her more than earnings reports ever did.
Her approach strips away the complicated stuff. She focuses on what you can actually see happening right now on your screen. Support zones. Momentum shifts. Volume confirmations. The patterns that show up week after week regardless of what asset you're trading.
Siriporn runs practical sessions where students bring their own charts and work through real setups. No theoretical examples—just current market conditions and live decision-making. Her students often mention that she's blunt about mistakes, which helps them avoid repeating the same errors.
"Most beginners overcomplicate this. They add ten indicators and wonder why they're confused. Start with price and volume. Everything else is just decoration until you understand those two things properly."
Building Your Analytical Process
Technical analysis isn't one skill—it's a sequence of observations that build on each other. Here's how experienced traders typically work through a chart from first glance to final decision.
Start With the Big Picture
Before you look at any indicators, zoom out. What's the overall trend on the daily or weekly chart? Is price making higher highs and higher lows, or is it chopping sideways? This context determines which strategies might work.
New traders skip this step and jump straight to the 15-minute chart. That's why they get caught in counter-trend trades that look good in the moment but fight the larger flow.
- Check multiple timeframes before committing
- Note major support and resistance on higher timeframes
- Identify whether market is trending or ranging
Look for Confluence
One signal isn't enough. You want multiple pieces of evidence pointing in the same direction. Maybe price is hitting a support level at the same time RSI shows oversold conditions while volume is picking up. That's confluence.
When three or four factors align, the probability of your analysis being correct goes up. It doesn't guarantee anything—markets don't work that way—but it stacks odds in your favor.
- Combine price action with at least two other confirmations
- Wait for volume to validate the setup
- Check if multiple timeframes agree on direction