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The 1st goal is don't lose money. Hence you want to risk about 1 to 2% per trade. The 2nd goal is to make money, hence you want to go for a reward bigger than your risk so you can be right less than half the time and still make money. The third goal is to make a lot of money, that's why you have to trade in such a way that allows you to, as @rrracer says to trade another day after a loss.
Most of us don't realize before they trade live that when in a trade, your personality often changes. You experience every countermove as a threat. You're desperate to get out with tiny profits, take large losses, etc. etc. It takes time to learn the skills to manage a trade and you need enough money or a small enough position to allow yourself that time. It's something sim trading doesn't do and very much underestimated in my opinion.
Re: the holy grail - yeah, it always kills me when I read about someone looking for (or selling) THE indicator or method! LOL
In TOS, I currently use a 144 tick countdown indicator on a chart with Heikin Ashi candles, two simple moving averages (50 & 200), and other subcharts: MACD, StochasticFull, and TTM_Squeeze.
I scalp, trading in minutes long timeframe seeking a nickel or dime.
I hope I've answered your questions, and if not, let me know.
What is a zigzag chart and what did you/do you use it for?
A zigzag chart is nothing groundbreaking. It's just a bit of code to trace highs to lows, and it counts the distance in ticks or points from H to L. It makes it a whole lot easier to record stats instead of trying to eyeball the ticks! I don't actually trade on a zigzag chart. All I use it for is to make the post market/weekend homework a little bit easier and less time intensive.