Well written NoDak, GOOD POINTS !!!

 To Quote NoDak "There seems to be a lot of animosity towards chartists. I'm sincerely curious as to why that is. When I found this site I loved looking at blu's charts (still do)."

I agree, and was flailing in the wind trying to use stuff I thought I understood. However .... sometimes I think a portion of the animosity may stem from one sensing some arrogance / ego from a presenter, (passing no judgement here) because the very nature of this forum and not seeing one face to face, reading body language, etc. can lead to those kind of perceptions unjustly. Sometimes confidence ..... can be misread as arrogance too.

Quote ''Do people not want to at least consider that there could be more than what we have come to believe?''

Seen them work to many times. For me, It has boiled down to this ... Charts represent time and price at their basics, why wouldn't the use of time and price be useful in anaylizing it ? One only needs to glance at a chart to easily see patterns, lines, channels etc.. The key is coming to an understanding of what those are telling us. 

Quote "Doesn't it make sense to use the probabilities to your advantage while making a profitable sale?"

The insurance industry is BUILT on using probabilities to their advantage. One of their most valuable assets is called an Actuary, I went to school with one, he was a mathmatical whiz, good at what he does ... and very well compensated for it !

Quote "Whether it's acres, weather, trade, fund positions, crush, grind, currencies, or countless other individual factors of the day- they are all combined into price and we can view that daily
bar."

BINGO .... There it is in a nutshell far as I'm concerned .... and personnaly ... it simplifies and GREATLY reduces the emotion and continual clamering for wide ranging information, for me ... and I'm a greenhorn rookie at it who REALLY needs to learn more everyday. It's already freed up some of my time spent at marketing. However lest one thinks it's easy, it does take a fair amount of time (and a fair amount of frustration ... at least for me) working with and learning a system / method, .... more than I think some are willing to invest. I know I spend more time learning than I think is reasonable at times .... hope it gets better in the future, but sure am enjoying the ride so far. There are several on here helping me on that journey. I for one greatly appreciate their contribution. I've went on to long.