Thanks for the search. Lots of good stuff on pullbacks vs reversals. I have thought about adding volume combination in addendum to the 3 bar combination. This might be making things a little too complicated. I am also looking into possibly trading the Forex as it seems to have much more continuation of trends than the ES. My trading fractal for trends for the Forex would probably be a 60 min 15 min combo instead of the 5 min 1 min combo i currently use in the ES. lots of possibilities.....thanks for the replies.
On that same subject, I like this thread (also found in my signature): http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17986
I've had only a very brief viewing on your details. Actually many posters in this thread have provided very good comments. Personally I think we couldn't wait until finalising a perfect system to start trading, as many improvements would be only found by making actual (some costly) mistakes. Perhaps a very short timeframe could produce many noises to be properly filtered. Preferably we would need to carefully choose a market suitable to our style/objectives. Most importantly, we have to establish an effective evaluation approach (including such as backtesting and others) to ensure whether a system is working/profitable or not. Comparatively, choosing whatever variables/parameters (as volume may not be available when trading forex) would be secondary, as I wouldn't think there is only one single solution. Lastly when our evaluation of the existing system has confirmed some uncertain/unfavourable results, we might have to find/invent a completely new system, I'm afraid.
I appreciate all the help. I did some more studying and think that the problem was determining a reversal from continuation of a slower angled trend channel from a steeper one. Since I am not sure which one will prevail, I will sideline until the market shows me. If it shows me a slower pace, I will use the 15 min bar as my trend pace for stops instead of the 5. Today is a good example of a 15 min pace trend long all day. It did not break one 15 min bar low until the last 15 minutes. Instead of worrrying about the 5 min, I will hang out on the 15 min fractal instead.