For example, an MACD indicator may be nice to look at, but can anybody who uses it actually say with great certainty that they have stronger intellectual grasp of the market.

I imagine many people know the rules of how to trade the MACD, but how many can actually proclaim they know what it has to the underlying reason for the price movement? No too many.

While these kind of indicators may seem like a fast way to learn the markets, the truth is you're not really learning anything about the market. You're just using an indicator as a translator. The translator is the indicator interpreting the market and reading it back to you. This may seem like a great thing, but it is doing you a great disservice.

YOU should be the translator. The market shouldn't have to be translated for you. It's like going to live in a foreign country for a year. You could probably always find somebody who spoke English, but to really be able to live and enjoy the culture, you are going to have to learn to speak the language. It's the same case with trading forex. Except the language you have to learn is price action.

The first thing you need to do to learn this new language is get rid of all your indicators that you use to trade with. Don't leave a single one. You're only cheating yourself. Then, pick a currency and just watch it for the day.

Pessimists probably think that doing this will not lead to anything, but if you take the time to do this , you'll start to notice that price patterns can be repeated and forecasted. This is the real holy grail.

If you don't believe this is possible, just Google Jesse Livermore. He is a famous stock trader from the early 1900s who was able to become rich just by trading the price action on the market floor. If he could trade price action without even using a chart, you have no excuse.