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I will continue to use these pivot points and work on my tape reading skills. Also I'll keep looking for that 1 indicator I may be missing. I am on the right track now. Thanks for all your help wsam29, I'll keep posting my progress as I refine my strategy.

I tried the pivot points and they worked pretty well. But I wasn't really disciplined enough to take some of the signals but I will continue to practice. I attached three charts. ATI, SU, and XLE. I traded mainly SU, the XLE is the index I follow. But it isn't a very good one, atleast not today. In the morning I managed to sit tight until about 10:30 when SU crossed its PP. I got short and had a bid out at 73.66 which was S1. The last print to go off before it reversed was 73.67, go figure. So I didn't get the fill and ended up just taking the offer. Unfortunately I didn't have the guts to reverse and get long. And as you can see it reversed. I didn't get long until the PP where it crossed through and pulled back on the one red candle. I managed to make some money there. So it reaches R1 and here is where I got whipsawed for a good while. I should have known to sit out because it was nearing lunchtime and such. But I kept getting long and short multiple times. That killed my profits just from commissions. Finally around 2:15 I got short and made some there. But the price never really reached PP so I had to cover. I waited for the price to approach R1 again and it did I got short but it popped a little and I covered the top but I immediately reshorted and made some money back. That is pretty much the jist of my day. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It was a very sloppy day to say the least but I think I can really practice hard and make good use of pivot points. It was the first day I used them so can't expect much.

funny that you mention pivot points i just finished reading about them and am planning to implement exactly what you said. I will calculate the pivot points and just wait until those points to read the level II and tape and then make my decision rather than trading at random points. I will try and post the results tommorrow after work. Take care!

hey, thanks for that reply wsam29. Your right I really don't have a clue what I am doing even after a year of jumping in and out for 3-4 cents. I feel like its pretty ridiculous sometimes to trade this way but I see traders make pretty decent money scalping a few cents here and there. It could just be that this type of trading is not for me. Im more for of an easy going and mild tempered person hyperactive trading really messes with my psychology. Seems like everyday I make a resolution to get my head out of the level II but by the end of the day that is all i look at. I will have to stop trading randomly to stop getting random results. I've tried to use just an MACD histogram to find divergance and then use the level II to confirm any turning points but I just can't sit on my hands and wait for good entries and exits. How did you get out of that churning mentality that the prop firm taught you? Thanks again for all the advice.

Thank you for the replies. I've been trading for only a year so I think for me the difficulty is in really knowing what my style of trading is or has been because up until now my winners and losers have felt random. Even on days or even months where I have made decent money I don't really know how or what methodology I used. The trading style I was taught was completely discretionary focusing almost all decisions on what occurs within level II quotes. wsam29: You said you "use" to trade stocks. What made you switch from stocks to something else? torero: I agree completely that prop firms leave very little room for creativity. They focus a lot on burning tickets and getting in and out very quickly. It is tough to find help in learning new trading styles when everyone around you pretty much does the same thing. Which is why I am here, to learn from all of you guys different insights and new ideas.

Hi everyone. I have been trading for 1 year at a prop firm in Atlanta GA. Our office focuses on trading energy as a sector. For example I trade HES, COP while using the XLE, OIH and Crude futures as leading indicators. This style of trading worked for a few months but lately (the past 3-4 months) it has been falling apart and now crude prices have been sliding while the energy stocks themselves have been much slower to move down. Long story short I want to move away from energy. All I've been taught up until now was energy sector related. What other stocks or sectors are good for beginner daytraders like me? Traders at my firm like stocks with 1-3 million shares traded daily, second or third tier stocks. But most books I read tell me to focus on the leaders with high volume. Any advice on criteria you guys use to choose good stocks to daytrade. Thank you very much guys!