Technical Analysis not working

You cannot just read one book and some articles on Technical Analysis and some indicators and expect to be an expert and everything to just start falling into place and give you signals that will tell you when to buy and sell with precision and massive profits all the time.

It is like someone reading a book on how to drive a car and then expecting to drive flawlessly the first time they sit in the driver's seat, or someone reading a book on brain surgery and expecting to be able to operate on a live patient the next day.

It looks like you are using 3 or 4 indicators to get daily buy and sell signals on a daily chart for an ETF you're looking to hold for decades. So firstly you are using short term indicators for a long term outlook. You need to decide what timeframe you plan to hold your investments for and use chart periods and indicators that suit that timeframe.

Secondly, each indicator can be used in a number of ways and the settings you use for each indicator can determine whether you get earlier or later signals. Also, you need to work out which indicators work well together and are complementary, compared to those that don't work well together and give conflicting signals.

All this information will come together for you the more you read about and practice the art of Technical Analysis.

If your timeframe is very long-term (decades) I would be using mainly a weekly chart, with a longer period MA, the ROC indicator and possibly some trend lines. Keep it simple. The price itself is very important too. You can determine when a trend is starting or has ended purely using the price. The definition of an uptrend is higher highs and higher lows, so on the weekly chart if there is a lower high followed by a lower low - this could be the end of the uptrend. If we get a lower low followed by a lower high - this again could be the end of the uptrend. These could be a good time to start getting cautious and maybe looking to sell. If you are using stop losses (which I recommend) this may be a good time to tighten your stops.

Similarly, a downtrend is defined as lower lows and lower highs. If we get a higher low followed by a higher high it could be the end of the downtrend and maybe the start of an uptrend. This could be a good time to start getting ready to buy.

You need to learn about how and where to set your buy and sell orders (including stops) and whether you wait for confirmation when you get a signal.

All this takes some time, but the more you read, the more you attend live events and the more you practice the more they will become second nature. In order to get the best out of Technical Analysis you will need to learn, plan, practice and execute.

A good book to help you prepare your trading plan is "Smart Trading Plans" by Justine Pollard. One of my favourite books is "The Complete Trading Course - Price Patterns, Strategies, Setups, and Execution Tactics" by Corey Rosenbloom. And another good book is "Trade your Way to Financial Freedom" by Van Tharp.

I would echo @Victor's comments. One book and 1000 web pages doesnt make you a good investor/trader.

There are some basic things you should be aware of and read up on

• risk management and diversification.
• removing emotion from your trading by having a trading plan. Daryl Guppy's book later is very good on this.
• choosing sell stops and the criteria by which you change them
• position size and number of positions
• entry criteria - technical, fundamental, elliot wave, a mix of all?
• exit criteria - this is more than just sell stops, you should take into account external market conditions as well.
• backtesting your trading systems
• Know your time frame. Are you a investor (trades last years), a trader (trades last weeks-months), a day-trader (you close all your trades at the end of each day. I'm sure there are nuances between those but you will emotionally fit in one of those three.
• what are the tax implications of your trading, how can you make them the most tax efficient they can be in the country you are tax resident in, work in and live in (which could be three different places!)?
• Know what you will do with your investment when the stock market is not appropriate for investing. Cash? Bonds? ETFs? Bear ETFs? Short stocks?

There are a few books that I would recommend

• Blue Chip Investing by Alan Hull
• Chart Trading by Daryl Guppy
• The Secret of Candlestick Charting by Louise Bedford
• Trading for a Living by Elder
• Secrets For Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets by Stan Weinstein
• How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market by Nicolas Darvas (old but very interesting)

I have been trading for over 10 years, my dad for over 30 years and we are both continually learning new things. Don't read one book and assume you know it all. Bear in mind that there are always new indicators being thought up and new ways of using and interpreting the same information, so keep reading and educating yourself.