can a person totally ignore fundamentals?

knowing the fundamentals means you know the trends and how to properly play your positions within those trends.

Then within that you need to know the technicals to understand the irrationality of traders and the day to day flows so you can play to your advantage.

The more more knowledge you have the smarter your trades will be. Correlate it all with as a much data as possible and then factor in the irrationality of the market in the short term.

To answer your question renasdad I beleive you DO need to know the fundamentals. In my opinion they drive this market. Currency valuations are all about the perceived strength or weakness of the particular economy of the currency pair being traded. The central banks and big dog traders don't see a 'gartley pattern' on their chart and think, hmmmm, it says it's going up so I'm buying.

Take GBP for instance. Nothing but bad economic news from the UK about the banks and housing and it's been in a down pattern from November of last year, same for the USD. Just now the news from the EU is getting just as bad if not worse so down goes the euro.

Why do you think the carry trades were so hot last year? Rising interest rates along with solid economic growth. That is not technical, pure fundamental. Now then when you know what the perception is of the pair you are trading, you can then use the technicals of your choice to target your enties and exits.

I trade intra-day so I always check the calender to see whats coming out and when and trade accordingly. Now, I never trade the news release as trying to guess the market reaction can be suicidal, but I do wait for the market to decide where it wants to go then try and hop on the train from there, usually 15-30 mins after the release if it's a biggie.

In my opinion, fundamentals drive the perception so ignoring them is not something I would do.

I believe it is possible to ignore fundamentals, and I have been trading that way for some time now. I trade TA only.

Absolutely. Only fundamental I would care about or even trade is rate-announcements.

Let's put it this way:

Is there a strong need to understand every and single macroeconomic report to do well in bussiness?

I don't know u all, but i have met a LOT, and i mean A LOT -my grandfather among them- very successfull bussiness men that didn't even finish elementary school.

Trading -as in "commerce"- shouldn't be different...

of course having a sound sense of reality helps a lot... in every aspect of our lives... not only in trading...

knowing more helps, but i am sure of one thing: having a Ph.D in Economics wont help a lot if u rely only on that PhD when we come to trading...

whole different thing...

maybe good trading is much more like "pattern recognition"... and that is a skill that is not tought in schools.. maybe it could be polished in one... but not tought.