I think of the man behind the curtain every time I look at an intraday chart or a time sales chart scrolling tick by tick across the screen. It doesn't look mechanical or impersonal to me, as it does to most traders. I realize that there are thousands of anxious people behind each and every trade the market makes. The key to high-percentage trading is learning how the people behind these trades, under certain circumstances, react predictably to certain types of events, numbers or patterns. Now I'm not saying a background in psychology will increase your winning percentages substantially, but if you understand this approach you can predict the patterns a good percentage of the time.
Investors react predictably to news and fundamentals.
Technical analysts react predictably to patterns, resistance levels and a wide variety of indicators. Daytraders react to momentum and volatility. Maybe Freud would have been a good daytrader. Anyway, when I trade a stock, I not only play the momentum, but also the traders behind that momentum. With this approach, I can reasonably predict how four specific patterns react most of the time.