Something interesting my father said to me the other day. He's more of a longer term investor/trader however sometimes he does make day trades, usually with a stock he already owns a decent amount of shares of. His words that I found interesting were, "I figure out my numbers, look at a chart quick, if it looks good I'll put a limit order in at that price."
He has said to me that he misses trades like that sometimes but it doesn't seem to bother him all that much and I suppose it's because he already owns shares of the stock. There are times though that I can sense he really wanted to be in the trade. What I found interesting and thinking in terms of what we all are trying to apply was...He said he figures out his numbers which I suppose can relate to AMT ( I don't know how he gets his numbers) and then he waits for the price, if it looks good (SLA) it puts his order in. He doesn't trade this way but I felt like the concepts were similar.
He also one day said something along the lines of price being in a range for the day so he just kept buying the bottom. I was tempted today to use that kind of mind set. This is obviously hindsight and I wish I noted it on my chart. After we hit 36 for the day I was thinking if we got back up to 49 I would just short it with a stop at 51 for shits and giggles (no setup or anything) and then if we kept playing the range game stop and reverse at 36 with a stop at 34.50. Maybe it would have just been dumb luck but it would have pulled out a good amount of points today with not too much risk. I am going to investigate further my father's words. I have also been trying to get him to take a look at what DB's been teaching as I feel it will only benefit his trading even further. One simple thing like placing a buy stop entry instead of limit order, but to each their own.