I agree that you must have the occasional big winner to really get ahead. This does not require an investment time frame, because "big" is a relative term. If you are a daytrader who's average winner is 25 cents/shr, and once a week you bag a $3/shr. winner, you are going to have much better results. That one big winner will pay for a lot of mistakes and will also improve your confidence. In order for that to happen you must let your winners run. The best way to let winners run is to use a trailing stop that you don't monkey with, because you aren't smart enough to improve it by monkeying with it. Set it and leave it.
personally, i don't have the time to change my stops b/c i'm too busy monitoring my thoughts/emotions etc. i just try to make sure i know exactly why i'm getting out now and it had better be consistent with my 2:1 p/l ratio or i'm still in it.
Here is a link to Chuck LeBeau's site. He has one of his bulletins (#47) dedicated to the idea of a ratcheting ATR stop. http://traderclub.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?107/107 Disclaimer- I'm not a system trader. Just wanted to pass on what might be helpful. Kevin