FedGolfer, thank you. I appreciate your market insight as well. I'm not concerned with where the herd is going on this board. For me, the account talk page is more valuable than the account allocation. I have a few people this board that I read daily because they provide more insight than Bob Pisani on what's really going on.
I believe that the market is moved ONLY by institutional investors. aka, Smart Money. If we can assume that day traders/scalpers are a constant in the market, then we can only assume that smart money is what provides the big volume moves or bulk market buying and selling.
I know people say that Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds are risky, but for the most part, Smart Money is the most conservative investor out there. Most Mutual Fund all stars, such as Bill Miller, have long time horizons of 5-10 years or more. These guys loaded up on Tech over the years and have been unloading it to the retail investor recently. Anyway.... The retail investor wants to hit it big right now and they can only wait until tomorrow at the latest.
One way of finding whether a stock may be 'undervalued or overvalued' by looking at the chart is it's relation to it's 200 DMA. If we can assume that the 200 DMA is the closest thing we have to a stock's 'norm' then we have to assume that everything eventually comes back to the norm. (Unless of course if you're Barry Bonds.) Watch the stock's price/volume action in relation to the 200 DMA. Is it time for it to revert to the norm; is it time to correct; will it continue to run? These are all questions you need to ask. Again, an oversimplification but think about it. Be skeptical of a stock that's up on 500% daily volume. (Think DNDN a while ago). You don't see Warren Buffet buying tech now, but instead he's buying BNI.
It's hard to say who influences me the most because I've put together my own style from the 60+ and counting books that I've read on making money thru Indexing-Day Trading-Value Investing.
Here's a link for you to start with in charts. Remember that by time you see it, it's ancient history.
Be careful out there... There are sharks swimming in these waters.
Six Tips to Assess the Significance of Price Patterns.
http://blog.afraidtotrade.com/six-tips-to-assess-the-significance-of-price-patterns/