I understand your concern, however, I haven't been studying trading in my free time to follow leprechauns. I intend to study and find my own "plan" as you say, however, at least the link above provides a good source to ask questions and learn from.
Without specifics regarding the trading plan, it's not an example of anything other than how imaginative one can be. But, whatever.
A lot of people thinks trading is easy and if you read enough book and try long enough you will make big bucks. Unfortunately this is far from the truth. Some people can do it some cannot. Just like everyone who wants to play football does not mean you get to go to the NFL. My honest answer is trading is really no different than poker. You must be able to read the tells the market gives you and are able to place your bets accordingly, manage your bankroll accordingly and walk away and cash in your chips accordingly Here is my advice. Learn how to play poker. The is how it is, you are probably not cut out for it, but that is okay. My recommendation is to put your money into SPY and/or IWM and dollar cost average over time. Reinvest dividends and let the power of compounding do its work.
I don't want to discredit your "its not for everyone" response, but I'd like to know why to think that? What flaws/mistakes make it not suitable for some people vs. others? Granted, I'm no genius, but I'm not an idiot either. I know that I have been unsuccessful, but that's why I am here, I want to know why? Is trading only for geniuses? As far as your SPY/IWM comment, yes there a right time and place for everything. SPY/IWM long right now is, in my opinion, a bad idea. Very little reward left (if any in 2014) for the risk I would put in it. In late 2008, this would've been great advice, but today, not so much. Are you a part time trader as well? What works for you?
1) Only trade in that 1 hour duration. 2) If you want to trade actively beyond the 1 hour...only do such on your days off, vacations, leave of absence or anything that doesn't interfere with your job. Simply, don't trade at work unless its fully automated. 3) If possible, change your work hours to have more time at trading but only if trading is really that important to you. 4) Be realistic, if your work schedule is not flexible or job is not suitable for whatever trading style you've chosen...stay away from trading (seriously). 5) Backtest your methods and use "replay data" on the weekends or use it on your day's off to simulate trading until you're ready to trade with real money only on your days off, vacations or leave of absence. You don't have you're job / trading schedule working together in a way that allows you to have a "chance" at being successful in trading. Simply, you need to fix that before talking about learning different methods and such. Thus, I highly recommend staying away from the markets if your job schedule is not suitable for such. That's what I did as a part-time trader a long time ago while in college and working a part-time job. Some semesters trading didn't interfere with my class/study and job schedule. Thus, I traded. In contrast, there were other semesters my class/study and job schedule didn't allow proper time to trading. Thus, I didn't go near the markets. Yeah, back then I traded full time during the summers and traded when the University was closed for holidays or semester breaks.
You're probably trading while too tired or still in that morning fog. If you're going to bed at 12am. That means you're getting at most 7-8 hours of sleep and less then 1 hour for your mind to wake up. It take the human mind a least a few hours to reach peak performance after waking up.
Most of your points hit on trading and full-time job not being compatible. I agree. However, I wonder if somebody here has mastered the art of part-time trading. When you were doing it part-time, what were your strategies? How much time would you put into it? How would you manage your trades when you had school/work? Were you successful?Basically, what worked for you then?
That's a good point. I am usually sleep deprived, I will have to find a way to manage that. Are you a part time trader as well?