I agree on that, real time calls are not the be-all end-all test of a trader. What's important is why the trade was made, and why the stop was placed where it was.
My reference to parameters comes from a paradigm perspective. Kuhn’s “Structure of Scientific Revolutions” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions#Synopsis http://philosophy.wisc.edu/forster/220/kuhn.htm
It needn't be complex if one views it in terms of behavior rather than indicators, which is what most people consider trading price to be about. Using the "three-wave" example, it has nothing to do with Elliott but rather smart money and dumb money. The smart money accumulates ACME over weeks or months then engineers a breakout because they want to turn a profit. When that breakout occurs, the first wave of buyers comes in and the smart money can begin lightening up on their holdings, which is why the volume is so often high. This first wave isn't necessarily dumb so much as it is attentive. When the inevitable retracement occurs, the second wave comes in. This wave is only marginally dumb; they're mostly just late. When the third wave occurs, the truly dumb money appears: those who have been waiting for confirmation after confirmation, those who been waiting for some indicator or other, those who have been waiting for permission from some respected source. And since these are buying so late, they are the first to panic when price begins to roll over (there are, after all, no more buyers). Therefore, anyone who buys on that third wave is taking a much greater risk than someone who buys near the original breakout. That may or may not be what the OP was referring to in terms of waves, but it serves to explain how these waves refer to behavior rather than indicators or patterns.
that most people on ET pretend to be better than the rest in trading, but at the same time they beg for help. a contradiction.
Waves, cycles, fractals, EliotWave theory, all the trading theories of price repeatability patterns imo is total nonsense. Trading is like MAESTRO once alluded, like a swarm of birds or fish, swarming in large waves but keeping in rythm. One cannot predict by looking into the past, trading imo is not about predicting or counting cycles, always looks logical in hindsight. ALWAYS! but its baloney paloney bunkum twaddle. There!