I stopped live trading over the past few trading session to clear my head and work on some of my psychological problems that has hindered my trading. In addition, I was able to evaluate my overall performance and set some goals in my trading. This time off definitely helped and I'm looking forward to trading tomorrow.
Over the last four months I experimented with several types of buy and sell signals. I learned a lot from this and realized it's not always helpful to have tons of setups for entering the market. Fortunately I was able to abandon those setups prior to going live earlier this month and I'm focusing all my attention one setup. It's best for me to master one setup before learning anything else (occasionally I will enter off a breakout). My primary market entry signal will be a DIVERGENCE setup off my 3 minute chart (BUY on positive divergence and SELL on negative divergence). I use my 1 minute chart for faster entries only when the signal corresponds with the 3 min. I will continue to use pivot analysis, market breadth indicators and draw trendlines as a tool for entering and decision making. Lastly, just to discuss some common weaknesses with my system. I will exercise extreme caution (or avoid trading) when... 1. Price is choppy 2. Price is in a considerable TREND 3. Super-tight ranges of 2-3 points My market exit rules are the same!
Pirolmaniac, Sorry for the late reply. I decided to stop trading over the past few days to reevaluate some things. Taking a break definitely helped me. I recently posted the parameters of my setups (see a recent post). As to those scalps, I don't plan on entering and then exiting for one tick, only if necessary. Hopefully my time off will reduce the amount of anxiety I have while trading. As to my stops, each setup is different so my stop placement will change according to the particular trade and market conditions. Keep asking questions!