I'm in a similar situation as you... being in a prop and fairly new, but here are some simple suggestions that may point into a better direction:
- What are you using as buy/sell signals for AMR? I would obviously watch all the other airlines and the XAL. I personally prefer to trade sectors and not just individual stocks, so in order to trade AMR, I would have to bullish/bearish on the XAL... and then I would get in 4 of these airline stocks at once... choose four that are relatively stronger if you want to get long and vice versa for getting short.
- Watch oil very closely as airlines obviously trade inversly to crude. In addition to stalking XAL, you should be monitering the crude oil futures contract. If your firm does not provide future's quotes, watch USO (not OIH or other oil ets as these stocks frequently diverge from crude). As a side note, never call tops/bottoms in commodity moves... support/resistance in my opinion is less relevant in commodities as supply/demand is more rational. That said, don't go long airlines when oil is ripping at seemingly absurd prices.
- Are you allowed to trade pre-market? There have been a lot of upgrades/downgrades in the airline sector recently (today CAL was downgraded and I think UAUA was initiated with a Buy). Anyway, the guys that trade some of these airlines at my firm seem to make their money getting in pre-mkt and then selling shortly after the open after decent moves. Today (Dec 17), airlines had that mid-day reversal you could've potentially traded, but most money is made near the open. And especially because these stocks are lower priced, they generally get in a narrower range by mid-day which makes them undesirable to trade (unless crude does something wild).
- I can't really see any time you should have a 3 cent stop in AMR. That's way too tight and you will get stopped out repeatedly of potentially winning trades. Enjoy paying commissions. Today (Dec 17), AMR had a 50 cent range. WTF is 3 cents for that stock? Now on other days AMR has a narrower range, say around 20 cents, those are days you shouldn't be trading AMR because you have no edge as a day trader. In other stocks you can trade support/resistance on consolidation/resting days, but judging on the daily charts in these airlines, you have no business doing that... unless you want to buy at support and hold for a several hours... and you can't do that with a 3 cent stop. So point of the story is to not have a 3 cent stop. If your trading a chart pattern that warrants a 3 cent stop... move on because it will rarely justify your commission fees.
- Don't call tops or bottoms in airline stocks, especially on futile support/resistance areas. Those stocks can go up 6% intraday and your like "wtf that's too high"... then they go up to 12% and then your like "really, these stocks def can't go up any higher "... and sure enough they close up 16% and near the highs. To add to this point, don't get into a sucker short because you see one big red (sell) candle and try to short. Watch volume very closely. Don't sucker sell a big red candle stick in the middle of the day on low volume. And never, never, never fade moves with large volume.
- You said you are reading a lot of books... we'll books won't teach you how to trade. The only relevant books when it comes to trading are those that have to do with psychology and those with general market information. To become profitable, you need a strategy. No trader would be foolish enough to publish a successful strategy. Maybe it worked several months or years... but why would someone expose his trading edge? So focus more time on studying charts and your own trades. Everyone says it, but keep your own journal and daily records. Write any thoughs throughout the trading day. If you do not, you will fail. Writing stuff down after the trading day is almost worthless as you will forget many points.
- Although it could be otherwise, ignore fancy oscillators and indicators. I've never met a single profitable trader that uses oscillators of any kind. As for indicators, most guys do use a 20 day MA... in addition to some other days. But they are just one piece of the puzzle. Don't create buy/sell signals from some loony oscillaotors and indicators. Keep sh!t simple and watch price action.
- I lost money in November because I failed to recognize trending days as opposed to sideways days. If you haven't done so already, learn about bull/bear flags and use them to your advantage on trending days. If the S&Ps are trending after 10:30am/11:00am, it's a good chance that so will your stocks. Also knowing that the XAL index has been raging on the daily chart... favor getting in on those bull flags. Also, learn about other simple patterns. But remember that charts can be deceiving and big market players manipulate them to look a certain way. Then a fakeout will occur and you'll get stuck on the wrong side. Look for volume to confirm breakouts of patterns such as triangle. I use 5-minute charts and I always wait for the candle to close before getting in. That way, i don't get in a stock and get stuck in a tail. Also, don't fall in love with too much candlestick patterns just because I mentioned them. They are largely irrelevant to day trading. I just watch for tails and signs of where the candle closed (on high of bar?). Take it easy with all those three soldier patterns. Just ask yourself if the candle is bullish, bearish, or a neutral doji.
Feel free to PM me with some other questions. I'm surely no expert but what I wrote has helped me in December thus far.
