Quote from NoDoji:
Great post, big hurdle to overcome when starting out. I was doing this all the time, and finally decided to have my husband write an automated program using my basic strategies because if I couldn't learn how to trade ALL my signals as soon as they occurred, then I'd have a system do it for me. He worked on a program and I began a long stretch of hard statistical analysis of the 5-min chart every day after the close. I'd scroll the chart all the way back in time so it looked exactly like it did in real-time. I developed specific rules for setups, entry, and exit, and do my bar-by-bar analysis, logging everything in a spreadsheet.
The automated system in its earliest beta state proved to me that even if I traded like a dumbass robot, with no discretion whatsoever, no regard for trend or moving averages, no knowledge of major news releases such as crude inventories and non-farm payrolls, and the crudest kindergarten rules possible, I'd still be slightly net profitable each week.
My daily analysis proved to me that if I traded according to my carefully defined rules, and traded all valid setups, I'd be nicely net profitable. The most important lesson from these months of analysis was learning to recognize valid setups as they were forming, when they are often rather ugly and indecisive-looking.
Price again wiggles here. This is where nervous traders grab their 15-20 ticks, call it a trade, then whine when it runs further without them.
But there are key levels still cleanly in play and no reversal signal. We have 103.40, 103.49 and then the high.
Wonderful post yourself.
As far as "This is where nervous traders grab their 15-20 ticks, call it a trade, then whine when it runs further without them." The first part did describe some of my trades on Friday. Being new to trading this contract and considering the volatility this last week, especially the last few days, I was happy to scalp it and get what I could. And there was so much backing and filling I didn't want to have it retrace the whole move back to my entry which it did several times. The other thing is, it didn't necessarily seem to be reaching "key levels" which were "still cleanly in play". Remember your post?:
Quote from NoDoji:
Tell me, WTF was so "dippity-do-buy-me-right-this-minute-or-never-see-this-bargain-price-again" about 103.32? 
ADD: Hmmm, looking at it here, maybe that IS the bargain price from now on out and we should go all in and target $108.
I thought about this more yesterday and today, as far as strategy goes. The way it's trading I'm tempted to take the 20 tick profit and then immediately reenter on a 10 tick pullback maybe, in certain situations. This is difficult of course and you need to be really on top of it and quick. Not sure how well this would work. And of course if it pulled back 5 ticks and then broke much higher you'd miss it. It moves so fast.
But there was one trade where I entered, wherever it was, and I could see it just stall, and in retrospect I should have just checked out right there or maybe moved the stop up to a 5 tick loss rather than the 10 tick loss I took. Another possibility would be to flip it, but that can be dangerous. Depends on the situation and where price is in relation to support and resistance levels.
In this mix is my unfamiliarity, although growing familiarity, with this contact and how it trades, the super volatility lately, and also on the other side is my own trading experience just "feeling" the price movements in the SuperDOM. If you've traded a lot a lot of times you can feel and see price stalling out and get ready to pullback when it has been going up or get ready to just fall and selloff when it's trying to rebound maybe or hold a support level. Or getting ready to breakout. Or other movements. It's the pulse, so to speak, of price movement.
As far as the "then whine when it runs further without them", that wouldn't be me. Not sure if you aimed that at me or included me in that meaning it as constructive criticism. Quoting myself:
Quote from BCE:
L 103.71
Close 103.91
Ooooops! On it's way to 106
Just scalping.
ADD Hey I only left 30 ticks on the table. Make that 40 so far. Oooops!
Are we having fun today? 
And
Quote from BCE:
Aren't you supposed to sell and close your position just as it breaks out? No? I'll be filling up your new thread ND.
This of course isn't whining at all. The sticking out my tongue emoticon gives this away. It's me acknowledging that I am learning to trade this contract and not being down on myself for not doing it perfectly. It's me saying to myself, "Great entry, but next time maybe give it a little more of a chance to move even more in your favor." I aim to have fun and not overly dramatize anything that happens. I'm happy when things go my way. Roll with the punches when they don't. And learn from both so I'll do even better going forward.
