Hi, I don't trade anything but some basic price levels and volume 1 and 5 min candle charts. I never read news or SEC stuff b/c usually the market has priced it in although you can certainly make money if you are studious enough in that realm. I also don't do pump&dump much because I don't have borrows like Suretrader or Centerpoint, but again that is a good way to do it if you are savvy enough like Michael Goode or Sykes.

My best advice to you is to paper trade a lot when learning---I still do it sometimes on slow days or when I'm not in the mood for real risk. Try stuff like options, swing trades, forex, etc to see if have aptitude for those. Also, read everything you can get your hands on, that is probably what has helped me most, even though a lot of ideas in trading books conflict with one another.

In terms of what I to trade it's mostly countertrend scalps when I feel like the price has run up too high or too low. Some people get real into fibonacci retracements and that's kind of what I do I guess, but I don't use chart tools I go off where the stock has come from, if it's near an integer, if volume is tailing off, spread is widening etc. I recommend Coulling's "Price Volume Analysis"-great resource for understanding the market

Oh yeah, also one last thing is having a written trade plan and a journal. Profitly is kind of my journal but I also have a daily log that I note stuff. I look at my trades closely after market closes and see if I was on point or places I can improve.