Surf, you are jumping to conclusions. That is not what CF wrote and once again you avoided to answer a simple question. I must say this journal is rather amusing to read, thanks for keeping it going .
I saw several price patterns that appeared to produce significant price swings. I decided to analyze the results of every appearance of these patterns and pinpoint contextual clues that improved the chance of a pattern moving at least X ticks in my favor before moving Y ticks against me. I calculated max favorable and adverse excursions, and once I had enough data collected through varying market conditions, I chose to run the highest probability patterns through contextual filters that eliminated low probability price environments. The end result was a specific set of rules for valid setups, entries, stops and targets. Al Brooks calls the formula for determining when to take a trade the Trader's Equation: "Chance of success times the reward is significantly greater than the chance of failure times the risk." Win rates and R:R are meaningless in isolation; it's the combination that matters. Defining my rules in a way that could be automated was the most useful thing I've done. I was able to refine my trading to an incredible level of precision. I also had to toss out some pet theories I had about odds of certain setups; I'd based these ideas on selective memory. When put to the test the hard stats were quite surprising. If you can't teach someone the rules of your system, it's probably a lot of art and very little science. Also, I personally had to have very strict rules because I was unable to apply the "art" of trading properly. I consistently hesitated on excellent setups, traded mediocre setups, moved stops to break even when statistically I was ruining my edge by doing it, etc. I'm very relaxed with super strict trading rules and very profitable with them.