I would like to watch you trade whit. I seldom do breakouts either but I still find it tough to get in on limit orders. Most of my trades are when I think the market has run out of steam in one direction and I see a bar and want to enter if the hi/lo of that bar is taken out but not before. I guess in a sense this could be considered a breakout tho. The guy I mentioned before anticipates support and resistence and puts limit orders ahead of time but I dont have that kind of skill yet.
generally speaking, what i do is similar to what you described that guy as doing. i set my limit orders early quite often - if conditions are right, and let the price come to me. if you are using limit orders, you are GENERALLY buying weakness and selling strength, at least on the lowest time frame, since there has to be selling for you to buy and buying for you to sell.
I trade the same stocks all the time. I have really only traded three different stocks in the month of January. The advantage to this is that you really get to know the stocks and how they behave.You become very aware of what will get filled and what may be iffy. I am comfortable with market or limit and use them both. But I tend to use market order entries more often when I am shorting. I trade only big caps and only trade one stock outside the Dow 30.
====================== Mainly limit orders entry/exit; but trade/invest in liquid stuff you could almost always use a market order not get burned[non fed days anyway]. Observing much ,Writing daily data for years helps
I think it depends on time frame. If you are scalping for a few tics, then hell yes you always use limits. I trade for 15 to 30 tics in ER2 for example, and I always use limit orders for entry. Chasing a market is a losing game for me. I don't care if I miss a move or two, there will always be more trades. I often get out on market orders. Depends on what's happening. A spike through my target, or bailing on a dead trade is usually a market order. Otherwise, limit for exit too. Jay