I have already said too much. But I do hope that one day you will finally understand that trading is not about catching mega trends or being right about the direction of the market, it's all about making money at the end of the month/year. So while you are sitting here trying to figure out how to ride the "big" moves, someone else has already earned twice the size of the "big" trend you are looking for, just by capturing tons of medium to short term moves... with minimum risk.
This has nothing to do with scalping, even though some individuals do make a living scalping the market all day.
See this is my point, if I had of waited for a bigger retracement and tried to get a bargain price I would have missed this, but I just jumped in on a tinny 5 min pullback and I'm in this for the long 1 hour trend
It is a simple trade off. Trade the breaks, never miss a trade, but probably get whipsawed more often OR wait for pullbacks, get every loser, sometimes miss the trend and yet possibly get whipsawed less often. ....when a market is trending, or has enough potential upside to make multiples of what you might risk, then why are you trying to 'get a bargain'. Dont cry over spilled milk and trades that couda' done so much better. Getting a real risk to reward ratio of 1:4, is better than a potentially better and ultimately negative one just so you can secure a bargain of feel you entered at a great price.
'get every loser' - a poor way for me to explain...sorry. Basically....if you take every trade that pulls back you are guaranteed to get every single trade that ends up being a loss.....and yet you will miss out on some of the winners. Whereas if you buy breakouts you will also get the same amount of losses....Stands to reason....but you should never miss a winner. ............given the OPs original question - is it better to wait or just get in. As he is trying to get in on the big trends he is better off just getting in. His stop levels and ability to run for a big trend is a different matter.