Give me some more detail. How many points booked before you got out? Which trades? What do you mean "looked so weak"?
I'm not comfortable trading timeframes as long as a minute. Are there any data venders that offer charts in the 3-10 second range. I'm doing some work on a 9 second MA that's showing promise.
Life is changing all around you. You probably used to buy and hold too. Rememer when Pabst was a strong brand. Embrace change. Try Predicting the weather in short time frames and you will be more successful with the results. You could trade using the Farmers Almanac. Think they did predict the big snow we had this year. Hmmmm. Try a 15 tick chart, trade double tops and double bottoms. Guarantee you can get wealthy doing this if your stack is big enough.
Following is the 1m chart for the long I got into. When the nasty looking red candle occured about 10 bars after where I have noted entry, along with the 5m looking weak, I bailed with 1 point locked in. 5m chart in next post.
Here's the 5m that looked too weak. Once again, this is why I am considering ignoring larger timeframes after entering, except for major support/resistance and just letting the 1m tell me what's going on.
Difficult for me to compare me to you, however, I would encourage you to look at you 5M chart carefully. Do you see the small DB that formed three bars before you sold? This was my buy trigger and my charts indcated that the area you describe was a normal resting place for price. Those small DBs are very productive on the 5M charts under the right circumstances. As a general rule, I look for 2 points on a confimed entry candle based on the 1M chart. When a signal appears on the 5M chart I target 4-6 points. My goal is to lock in a minimum of two and follow with stops. Easier said then done of course. I would warn you not to move your initial stop on the 5M until after the first pullback. Sorry, this is all I can offer. You are trading the NQ with an entirely different set of indicators than I am. Good luck. Here's my 5M of the same time frame. I circled the mini DB that I saw and that triggered entry on the 1M. Look very closely at the stochastic within the DB and you will see an "elbow". This is normally a very powerful indicator of short term weather. Call it an old wives tale.
You are welcome. I hope it helps. Another good day on the 5M chart. The Holy Grail Trade signaled the reverse pivot buy today and a good old VTDT signaled the sell pivot.