Hello again Ironchef! The market closed a few minutes ago - another day of experimentation - this attempt to scale up into heavier stocks and larger positions with AMD did not achieve a positive result today - not a catastrophic outcome - need further evaluation of choice of security/methology. Found that orders placed close to the price were successful today - but the "character" of AMD is quite different from the smaller/faster moving stocks I started with - the temptation to open up the price difference between my buy/sell orders led me astray - got into much longer hold times than I am accustomed to - this amounted to "day trading" without doing the required analysis. As an attempt to modify/compensate I reactivated various indicators - RSI, MACD, Leavitt Convolutions, etc. - did not work well - I am not smart/clairvoyant enough to employ these tools effectively. Have been approaching trading from an engineering frame of reference (am a BSEE) - looking at the overall movement/trend of price as "signal" and the rapid fluctuation of price of the ask/buy spread as "noise" - have been trading on this noisy component of price action by making rapid trades close to the price - success rates have been very high - analysis/prediction/knowledge of overall price behavior became unnecessary - larger movements of price considered as a relative velocity. Careful observation of the DOM/T&S gives me helpful clues as to where the buy/sell orders should be placed in order to intersect this noisy, rhythmic part of the price action waveform - trading in real-time rather than future time. So..It's not about luck/prediction/indicators/fundamental analysis for me - I guess it's about refining methodologies and finding a stocks (maybe futures would be better for this approach?) that have the right amount/type of high frequency volatility - the stock has to "dance to a tune" that I can understand - and I am working on my dance steps.
From noob to noob started(March this year), I stick to these mottos: - One today is worth 2 tomorrow - exorcise the pointless little devil in your head. His name is woshoco (woulda shoulda coulda). - I make the same trading decisions regardless of the amount. These work for me.