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The answer is this....I was not thinking clearly....
Obviously, I cannot trade without training wheels. My 5 min chart was pretty naked today. The first chart is what I wrote about earlier as a response to AJ. Its how I want to trade. But after today, its pretty obvious I still need help with certain things.
I am extremely embarrassed today about how the second chart looks. Its the naked one. The first chart is the one that has the MA's on it that Mickey Caine commented on. Its what I THINK I would have traded had I used it. Hindsight is 20/20 of course but at least the rules on the three kinds of trades paid off.
On to the details.
What I did right today:
1. Nothing.....
2. I did my pre market routine
What I did wrong today:
1. Everything
Plan for tomorrow:
1. Premarket routine
2. Put the training wheels back on. I will leave them on until I am a master trader.
Ok, thats it for today. It was a major FUBAR.....I will revisit it later when I am in a better frame of mind to look at it more closely....for now, suffice to say, I am still in shock over how poorly I traded.
Cheers
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Dont take this the wrong way ... but IMHO a master trader is one that is disciplined and consistently profitable. If the 50SMA keeps you out of bad trades and in good ones then keep it on your chart. Trading naked (no indicators) is pointless if it doesnt help you become consistently profitable. SHARKY and HORST use lots of training wheels on their charts and they do just fine.
Yes. There is a camp who is anti-indicator on this forum. No problem w/ that and I think anyone would want to work towards that. As far as Horst, I bet he doesn't need a lot of those indi's. Sharky, well, he definitely likes indicators but I have a feeling he doesn't need them either if he is truly profitable!
Could I thank ThatGuy for his post. I have just got back from 4 hours in the the pub, but please believe me when i say, i do know who bombed Pearl Harbour. I have watched Tora Tora Tora. It was obviously a vain British attemt at Humour. You are, I presume, a lot youger than me. Can I therefore suggest you watch Animal House (The Movie). . Best wishes and no offence taken or expressed.
Excluding extremes, I don't believe there is a right way or wrong way to trade. There is no black/white answer. Just lots of grey. Core principles are to make more than you lose, and to risk a reasonable amount. Beyond that whether you use no indicators or 200, whether you trade for microseconds scalps or month long swing trades, whether you breakout/breakdown, fade, divergence, cumulative delta, market profile, or xyz trade really means virtually nothing.
In the end you simply have to find what works for you. And the reason it works for you may not even be what you think. Some professional athletes will get superstitious about something, and need a certain 'thing' to happen a certain 'way', or they need to wear their lucky hat, or eat their lucky breakfast, or not have sex before a tournament, or whatever. They may think this leads them to find success, when it actually may not. It really doesn't matter, so long as they continue to find success and are happy.
Traders are much the same. A successful trader may believe it is because of his indicators when in fact it may be simply because he is good at reading a chart. He may believe it is because he has a toolset that is proprietary or complex, when in fact he simply has good intuition. Any number of things.
This is why, by and large, teaching others your method won't make them successful.
I am writing this post only to say that this forum represents all facets, whether it be anti-indicator camp, anti-automation camp, or the pro-automation, pro-indicator, or the you-must-analyze-volume vs the volume-doesn't-matter, and etc plus everything in between. Just need to remember that everyone can be right or wrong for different reasons at different times, and most of it will have little to no bearing on your own success or failure.
I was really bummed out yesterday. It took me all day to get over the drubbing I took. But later on in the day, I sat down and really tore the trades apart. Fact was, I did not utilize my range chart to filter trades. Still, that does not fully explain things. I think from a mental standpoint, I just collapsed. I guess it happens sometimes.
Today I came to the game determined to trade within my skill set. When I got here, I noticed the daily range was less than 150 ticks. This was not good for big trades at least with my current skills. So I opted for ten tick targets and 14 tick stops....this on a 12 range chart. Today I used the 5Min chart for trend and just traded the range chart. No entries off the 5Min. I'm glad to as it looks pretty tough the first part of the morning.
The result was +50 ticks on 7 trades. 6 winners and one loser. The loser was only 10 ticks because as soon as I had some profit on the trade I moved my stop up, otherwise it would have been a full 14 ticks.
The range chart was crystal clear to me today. It was like I knew what would happen before it did. I like that feeling and hope I experience it often.
What I did wrong today:
1. No pre market routine. I skipped it entirely. Go figure.
2. No breakfast....was not hungry.
3. Ignored the 5M chart....if you can call that wrong in this context.
What I did right today:
1. Decided to shorted up targets based on the narrow range.
2. Took every signal
3. I read PA much better today.
4. I WAITED for the right entry.
5. Decided to go back to 20 tick targets after the first couple of trades and the thought better of it.
6. Quit and went to have breakfast with my kid.
Plan for Monday:
1. Resume premarket routine.
2. Focus on reading PA using the range chart as the measure of PA inside the five minute chart.
No 5 Min chart today as all trades were taken on the range chart.
Cheers
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Sharky, well, he definitely likes indicators but I have a feeling he doesn't need them either if he is truly profitable! 
