Moving up questions (kind of long)

[forestwithin]

Hello, I was wondering how one could tell if they are just running well, or if they are actually getting better (or are just good at practicing table selection). I don't play enough hands to have huge samples so I can't really post a 50+ thousand hand PT sample or anything like that.

I moved to 100NL a month and a half ago (5-tabling) after kind of nitting it up at 50 NL (9-tabling), and have been taking shots at 200NL (became quasi-rolled for it today but can move back down if I start losing) for the past few days, after deciding to play more like people who I think are good, but it seems like it will take months to get the amount of hands to know I can beat a certain limit. (I get in about 10-13k hands a month and have 17k since I moved to 100NL)

It really does seem like I have been running well lately with sets and flushes and people folding and what not. I know that it probably isn't sustainable, but I also don't know what percentage of it is sustainable.

I don't have one of those graphing programs but from what I've read here, people seem to disagree as to the importance of stuff like sklansky bucks and what all those green, red, and blue lines mean. (this is probably just me not understanding what that information means) Plus the graphs have more to do with calculations once the money is in I think, but can they tell you like, if people are donking off money to you or if you are getting more than your fair share of flush over flush or stuff like that?

Also, I've noticed there aren't even a whole page of 2/4 tables usually listed at pokerstars (its saturday night right now and theres like 9 tables). Is there a bottleneck beginning at this level or something?

After reading that post by WCG I became curious about these questions but also realized that I don't play enough to really know the answers. I feel pretty comfortable at the new stakes I'm playing, maybe that helps in creating an atmosphere where I can do well? The first day I tried 200NL I lost the biggest pot I had ever lost, and even though the guy called with a gutshot, it didn't really bother me. Well it did I decided that I had to let it go.(I'm a losing player at PL200 though)

Sorry about all the parentheses, but if I don't use them it is even harder for me to explain things.