tough day for me so far. Turns out I had very similar entry ideas to 40d again (although i'm not an SLA student) However, managed the trades much worse and also took a few 'duds' that he didn't take (red-short, blue-exit)
IMO, all you need is to put a little more structure around your evident common sense - this is what AMT, sticking to range limits, half way points, and SLA does for me. You do not need to use what I use, but imo, you need to use something. Also, I do not know if you are trading multiple contracts or not, but if you are, you might consider taking some scale profits as price moves. I always take the first 3 to 5 points depending on the range, where price is in the range, how favorably I entered, current average range of the market, etc. I then use 50% of trade swing to manage the rest, for the most part, especially in the morning. If I trade the afternoon and I get in near an extreme, I am more likely to let price retrace on my position than I am in the morning session.
I should point out that the SLA does not work well, or at all, in ranges. Obviously 40D has found a way to make it work for him, but it isn't designed for that (like making a muscle car out of a Pinto). See the first three posts here.
I know that the trolls clamor for real time calls, and I've done my best. The problem, as you can see, is not in knowing where a trade might be available - the compelling trades, imo, are always going to be at at one of 3 or 4 pre-determined price levels as of the open on any given day. What is not predictable is the precise moment when and circumstances that signal the trade has become available. For me, it really requires intense focus as price trades into those areas, because the trade, at its most favorable entry, will not be available for very long - usually, for me, only seconds. Do the math on potentially taking 5 NQ points profit on 10 contracts and 10 or more points profit on another 10 contracts, and figure out the opportunity cost Trolls are demanding you potentially incur if you miss a trade because you were trying to post the alert real time to a message board to satisfy their skepticism - which, from experience here at ET, will never be satisisfied. I could stream my desktop live and I'd still have people chasing DbPhonenix down screaming "Hindsight!". You see, by the time you see the trade, send in your orders, adjust the stop, set your profit targets and finally settle down to see what happens, there has been little time to snap a screen shot, annotate, and post it to a message board. This isn't trading off a daily bar interval where I can alert you the night before that I'm going long on a buy stop on XYZ tomorrow. The best I can do is post a chart showing the 3 or 4 levels, the only 3 or 4 levels at which I am willing to trade that morning. What I did today is as close as I will be able to come to a real time demonstration.
My first race car was a '74 Pinto that I shoehorned a 351 into ... this one isn't mine, and I think its a '71, but man that sure brought back memories, DbPhoenix
As long as you can mentally set those losses aside and continue trading your plan, you'll be just fine.