technical analysis on the charts not related to trading

Price in the financial markets obeys technical analysis (to some extent). I wonder if technical analysis works similar way on other charts, not related to trading. For example charts of weather change of some period, or some other charts of changing values during some period. Just from curiosity to widen horizon. Any ideas or experience of using ta on the charts not related to trading?

Absolutely. Weather during the winter session in the northern hemisphere usually turns cold and often results in periods of freezing precipitation. This phenomenon occurs with remarkable regularity and thus lends itself well to successful TA.

Interesting if we make a chart of intraday temperature fluctuation (with decimal values) will we see the double tops, bottoms, head and shoulders and divergence reversals!?!? TA is the science that has no proof only signs. As for fibo proportions, they can be found in the nature, astrology and so on. Interesting what about other signs of market TA. I wonder how strong it is, or it has only market destination.

There's an old story that I recall about a challenge laid down by an academic to Dr Alan Andrews (of pitchfork/median line fame) to forecast weather cycles using his technical analysis tools. The tale goes that Andrews persistently sent him foreacasts on a regular basis based on the charts accurately predicting turning points and the beginnings of 'trends' for long after he had satisfied the academic that the tools had value, to the point of irritation. Hard to say whether (not weather) the story is beyond anything but anecdotal but the story was told by Tim Morge who I reckon is a stand up guy, considered the leading expert on median lines and Dr Andrews but also stands to gain through exaggerating their value. Also it follows to my logic, as squirly as it can be, that the past can be an indication of the future based on momentum, rate of change, actions and reactions, all of which are captured by the Andrews pitchfork. I can't find any more info about the story right now, I'll delve deeper in the next couple of days and come up with some details.

It's the old "which came first", "Is the Glass half full" type of dilemma. Some traders see randomness, some see order......... I'm beginning to think it all depends on how the individual's brain is hardwired. Does any body know if there's been a study on traders using an MBTI (or similar psy test) to determine TA bias????

I charted my P/L from a zero x-axis line for about three dozen trades and drew a straight line between each P/L (in $) dot, and found chart patterns I already use every day revealed on the chart that helped explain why I lost so d*#M%?! much money.

You should read the book "A random walk down wall street" I think you will find it a very interesting read. It has a very high number of positive reviews on Amazon and was written by a Princeton economist over 30 years ago. Its a standard text in for finance in many of the better known universities.

Precise OHLC temperature data is available from NOAA to anyone wishing to conduct backtests. Time frames are as important to
weather forecasting as they are to determining market sentiment, i.e. summer, fall, winter, etc. Roughly equivalent to market sessions - NY, Asian, Euro, etc.

It doesn't require TA to predict it will be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. But that's only two timeframes per year. There's also spring and autumn. At what tf point does historic data lose predictive value? As we drill down into finer segments of time, it becomes a lot harder to forecast. Or does it? Fractals anyone? Do patterns repeat?

What distinguishes a price chart from a weather chart is that price has some semblance of memory. Even if the market participants are not aware of the chart patterns or potential support and resistance, as can be witnessed when observing charts of share prices before technical analysis was founded in the Western world (by Dow and his mob), in fact before Dow even thought about putting price on a chart, the theories still appear to have value. If price returns to an old high, on aggregate market participants may have the same reasons to conclude that price is too high and sell. Those traders who are holding positions will remember exactly at which price they put their trades on. Temperatures know no potential support and resistance because there is no collective conciousness, but the further from the mean the more likely it is to return to typical levels, so I can imagine why pitchforks could be useful in identifying potential turning points in any data that has cyclical tendencies when they reach the outer bounds of the median line structure, suggesting a reaction is due following the initial action. It's all Newtonian physics when you boil it down.

Here's another thought; meterological experts have been warning about the global climate reaching a critical tipping point, and when this is reached there will be vast and unstoppable changes to the weather systems. This is perhaps not so unlike a breakout from a range, but just on a massive time scale that may be difficult for us to comprehend. The temperature change breeds greater temperature change, like panic selling in a fear dominated market. Temperature may have been in a range since the last ice age, and now this period of congestion is set to end and find a new equilibrium, probably at a much higher value. But then when we consider the time frame above that, say the last million years, it is just operating within the confines of another larger range, like Russian dolls.

How about Hurst with his cycles studies which originated from his work on tides/moons and such related to the Suez River and Canal zone many decades ago?

I also tried to analyse my equity chart, and found familiar patterns. Support, resistance, triangle. Even when i had a drawdown in my equity it found support at fibo levels. At first 38,2 then 61,8 (measured it with a screen ruler). didn't have time to make a chart of weather but surely will do it later.