I don't think I'll know what will have been the best trading advice I'd received until I can look back with satisfaction that I'd either consistently been a successful trader or I'd made the decision without reservation that it were best for me to avoid trading altogether. My reason for putting it that way is that the best trading advice for me will have been that advice that will most likely enable me to preserve my capital. What is probably one of the most popular pieces of advice goes something like "Keep your losses small and let your profits run". What little experience I have (a few years) has made it clear, to me at least, that such advice is very difficult to follow, because it's like a Catch 22: To keep your losses small, you need close stops, but close stops will almost invariably take you out early of any profit run that might be in the offing. On the other hand, of course, if you loosen up your stops to stay in what might be a profit run, you leave yourself open to a painful loss were that run not materialize.

To me, the most difficult problem about trading commodities is dealing with the noise, the daily swings in price that are magnified relative to a margined account. This is a major factor about what makes it so difficult to let those profits run. So, I'm coming around to the idea expressed at this forum by Erich, Tom, and probably Rob as well. That being "Shorten the time frame" or, as Tom seems to express it, "Ambush the trade". It makes sense to me. If I can't eliminate the noise, maybe I can at least trade it. And I am finding via paper trading that, by paying attention to areas of support and resistance, I'm often correct about the direction of the near-term price move, but uncertainty increases as time moves away from the setup point. So, for now at least, I'm thinking that the best advice I've received is to forget about home runs and instead to strive for consistent short-term profits. It's not my favorite advice, given the wonderful runs that often occur, but I have to admit it's probably the best advice, if I want to stay in the game!