This is a very very very good posting! It summarizes all (if not at least the most important) elements that are needed or encountered in the experiment of becoming a (day)trader. Although I recognize almost all these things from my personal experience I would never be able to write it like it is written here. Somebody who can write this proofs by writing it that he knows what he speaks about. Very valuable posting for starters. Read it carefully and analyze profoundly what each statement means for you.
1) You need 1 or more trading setups with edge. This means if you wait for the setup patiently and take it, you will achieve a positive outcome over 50% of the time. 2) Order management. Certain setups may allow for more profit, and some require and equal risk vs reward. 3) Psychological awareness. You need to accept the fact that the trade you take will turn into a loss either because you did not wait for a good setup, you were chasing, or you were revenge trading. Also, sometimes you will put on a good trade, and the market may still stop you out due to a report or randomness. So before you take the trade, you will be prepared for the loss or the win. 4) Determine how many trades you normally do in day. If you take 1 win on winning day, you don't want to take 3 losses on a losing day. You may also need to set a loss amount you will not go over for the day. 5) Write down either in Excel or Word a journal that in writing has your trade setups, and if a trade did not work out, why it did not for example, you were chasing instead of waiting for a good setup. Then try to learn from your mistakes so you don't repeat them. You want to make progress for example today I took a good trade based on my setup and it worked out. I then looked over my charts for the day to see where I can improve for future trading. For example, today I could have taken more setups and made more money.
That's good, but did you see it in foresight or in hindsight? Finding an edge is the first problem. Finding it in FOREsight is the next problem.
The OP wrote "... I am interested in how people learn to trade index futures contracts ..." So, this discussion is about how to learn, how to find an exploitable edge. Monitor price and volume, look for patterns, and take notes. Analyze what you observed, your notes. Decide what seems as a tradable edge. Act on testing what you found. Repeat this loop until you find the way, or you find that you don't have what it takes. What I did: Looked at llIHeroic's example. Analyzed it from various perspectives, and noticed a pattern on the small snippet. Formed a working hypothesis. Tested on llIHeroic's "aftermath" snippet. From here, repeating the MADA loop, on other snippets I can try to discover if and when my hypothesis works, adjust it, test it again, until I find that I can profitably trade it, or I give up. It's possible that my final finding will have nothing to do with this initial observation. Different traders will follow different paths. The same trader can try various routes starting from the same initial observation. There's no answer to your question about foresight / hindsight as it is unrelated to the process of finding a tradable edge.