Maybe I should start a journal and have others horribly critique my method. Basically, it's a battle between my rules and my hunches. Sometimes my hunches tell me what's right, get out me of jams. Sometimes, I just need to stick to the rules. I need to eliminate all subjectivity.
cmaxb With time the intuition will come and that will be your bell. Remember Psych 101, the dogs? Pavlov could condition dogs to do things for a reward or to avoid bad things. You will condition your intuition the same way, just get in there and keep firing away by pulling the trigger with your paws. Mark Douglas book is super for learning about conditioning yourself.
So how often do people's setups occur: once a day, once a week. What is the threshold for how often something must occur, for people to trade it. Note, the setup can only be recognized by a human.
Probably 25-50 times a day depending on the overall market action. Whether or not I take full advanatage...well that a whole different story.
You nailed that one......anything other than that.....you better clear the mechanism.......& all your positions as well!
cmaxb Thing is, once you have rolled in your 'intuitive' abilities with whatever systematic rules you have, it wont necessarily be boring with a little green light going on when it's time to do something and a red light for when to stop. Depending on how you trade, and from what you say, you sound as though you may be a little unorthodox/crazy horse, your signals might not be simplke to pick up- therein lies the fun. You'll find that you wont end up being a on trick pony and various different things can happen which point towards a level of conviction and action. I might be watching some prick playing with the order book that might give me an opportunity to do a bit of scalping or short term trading versus something a bit more meaningful (be it a technical or fundamental signal) which may trigger a longer term trade. As someone said before, and I can't stress this enough, trying to watch a million different markets before you are consistently profitable in one is ridiculous and it will probably slow down your long term progress. I know it is tempting to have bells going off all over the place but once you have learnt the ins and outs of all the drivers behind one market/product, you'll be able to pick up what moves others more quickly. If you start off watching 10 markets at once, you'll be clutching at straws and only seeing half-truths. Best thing you learn as you go through the learning curve is actually when to do nothing as opposed to trying to pluck a trade out of your arse for no real reason.