Actually that's a comment to ssk...
You wrote: "if I was working on entries and the market moved from the low to the high, and I bought in the bottom 5th of that range, I got a "A". If I bought at the low, and the market moved against me and I got stopped out for a loss, I got an "F",...."
You seem to trade a kind of retracement system. The market moves to a low, turns, you enter and ride it up again. You get an "A", if you enter in the first 5th of the range, but you get an "F" if you enter at the bottom and get stopped.
Actually your entry at the perceived bottom is the best entry of all. You have the highest risk:reward ratio, if your entry parameters, which define the temporary bottom for you are present.
If the market goes up, as suggested by your trade plan you are the hero, but if it goes against you, you are the worst of all losers? That's, sorry to say it clearly: Bullshit.
The entry is worth your "A" grade regardless of the outcome of the trade. You have no holy grail system, you have no magic bullet and you can't become the magic trader with just winning trades by giving yourself an "A" when you win and an "F" when you fail.
The entry is worth an "A" when your trade entry signal is given and you take it.
The trade execution is an "A" when you use a narrow stop, because you enter at the perceived bottom and just a small movement against you tells you, the trade is not working and you should go flat or reverse the trade. Of course it remains an "A" when you hold it through the trading swings until it reaches say 80% of the actual range.
It took me a long time to let go of the loser feeling in a losing trader, but that feeling is only warranted if you keep a losing trade against all odds. If everything in you tells you to go short but you remain long just because you happen to be in that trade.
Chris