Disagree. There are no GOOD reasons for passing on technical setups. Traders' "subjective evaluation (often flawed, of course) of what's good and what's not" is irrelevant to price action.
What about the "apparently GREAT setups" which end up as false/fizzlers? And the apparently "marginal" ones... you look back upon and say, "wish I'd have played that"?
Hey man, just offering to help. I'm a lonnnnnng time trader and am familiar with the mistakes we make, including the psychological ones. "Passing up" technical setups, regardless of our reasoning, is a big one.
I firmly believe the market in anything can be doing several things at once. It's like pouring two liquids together. Is it one liquid or two? Depends on your time frame.
Depends on the traders style. I trade high probability setups with negative R:R at times...certain days will tear my setups to shreds! I need institutional traders to NOT be on the sidelines "waiting" or making drastic changes to their ordinary activity.
Let me help you out... Every "condition" you put upon the decision to take a trade or not only hurts your bottom line. As a trader, your objective is to "capture the points" while letting stop discipline control losses. IT'S A MISTAKE TO BELIEVE YOU CAN ENHANCE YOUR SUCCESS BY TRYING TO "FILTER" PERCEIVED BAD TECHNICAL TRADES FROM GOOD! Stated another way... If someone explains to me why he "passed up a technical trade", I know from the moment he opens his mouth that the explanation is BS. Trying to filter our "good trades" from "bad trades" is at best a circle jerk. You'd like to think you can, but you really can't... and you miss TONS of profits by trying to doing so. K.I.S.S. With discipline and stops.
If you have defined setups that make you uncomfortable, there are a couple of solutions A...Remove that setup from your trade plan B...Take the trade anyway None of us can tell the future, you either have a viable plan with defined setups or you don't.