Technical analysis was formed out of basic concepts gleaned from Dow Theory, a theory about trading market movements that came from the early writings of Charles Dow. Two basic assumptions of Dow Theory that underlie all of technical analysis are:
- market price discounts every factor that may influence a security's price, and
- market price movements are not purely random but move in identifiable patterns and trends that repeat over time.
For an excellent recent video on how an experienced analyst, "Charting Man Dan", can use TradingView.com to explain his interpretation of the latest movements in the markets, check out Bitcoin Ethereum Litecoin Ripple Omisego Technical Analysis Chart 1/8/2018 by ChartGuys.com on TheChartGuys channel on YouTube.