4 Stages of Futures Trading Competence | A Hypothetical Evolution of An Elite-Level Trader https://optimusfutures.com/tradeblog/archives/4-stages-of-futures-trading-competence
It's all a function of feedback loops and iterations and time. Sometimes lot's and lot's of time. But, intuition is cool too. Often easier and quicker than correct analysis.
I think that intuition that comes in the 4th stage "Unconscious competence" is one that is based on adds and second nature of risk calculation. That comes, as you said, after many years of having trading real funds. Beginners who rely upon intuition as a source of method alone, will not get far.
What is rather amusing to me, when you have reached the top rung, your area of "happy zone" is quite small and when you seek a different area of trading, you back in "Unconscious Incompetence". After I developed risk management unit, ie Hedging, wanted to learn options for profits a decade back, it was so different than hedging, back to step one, then climbing the steps different way other than using the Greeks, found it easier as it was closer to how I normally trend trade. I think it is far more harder to learn how to trade today than 41 years ago, it is like going to internet and trying to select a DVD player, just too many choices today. And the hardest to learn is charting, but once you learn the ins and outs, you have best ways as most of the older traders are a where, to buy support and sell resistance and using tight stops.