What you say is pure theoretical, not my reality.
I think I understand part of what
@TripleJs is telling.
I have a number of basic rules that I can write down. But I also have a number of logical rules that I cannot write down as they are too numerous (probably dozens if not hundreds) and depending of specific situations. That is the discretionary part of my strategy. I tried several times to write them down too, but ended up with thousands of combinations that each had a different result. It is impossible to explain in a way that people who have not that "problem" can understand it.
The best way to compare the not written down, but logical, rules is to compare it to basic math.
We all know that 1+1 equals 2, we also know that if we add each time 1, the result will each time be one higher. Pure logic. If I get to the discretionary part of my trading, I use similar rules except in a much broader way. Instead of writing down thousands of potential situation, I try to use a logical system to get the correct answer. If I would have to write down all the rules, I might have to do like this:
1+1=2
2+1=3
5+2=7
124-3=121
2*4=8
14:2=7
etc...
So I should write down and memorize all these (millions) lines? By using logic I replace all these lines by a logical system. In this case a mathematical, which is easy. Pattern recognition is far more complex. Took me years before I could use it, especially because you have to be fast, many times a matter of seconds (in daytrading).
Another, maybe better, example is: You want to teach your child to drive a car. Can you write down all the possible situations that can happen when you drive a car, and the appropriate action to take? No, you cannot as there are millions, but an experienced driver knows for each situation in general what to do without writing down all the rules. Extensive, intensive and long time (sometimes years) of training the brain, replaces the writing down of rules that cannot be written down.
If you use differen timeframes with in each timeframe a few indicators, and for each indicator a rule for long, short or neutral, you can have millions of combinations. Good luck in trying to put that in rules. And then trying to handle that list fast enough to be able to trade it. And if you want confirmation from each timeframe, you might even get no signals at all as there are not much moments that all timeframes generate the same signal at the same time. So how close should you be to that point? Again millions of different, almost, signals. Which one are good and which are not? You can be busy till eternity.
