I started the same as you by depositing $500 in my trading account. I don't want to discuss how much I have to trade with now. It's more than $500--lol.
Each part of my methodology came together at periodic times. In July 2004 I first opened a demo account. I read a book on indicators. I learned a lot from that book, but quickly made my first mistake. I enjoyed the stochastics. I also liked the MACD and Williams. The only problem is they all essentially do the same thing because they are all oscillators. As I was instructed from the beginning, you always want to have a confluence of events. My confluence was happening all the time, but I could figure out why I kept bankrupting my demo account. The first lesson I learned is never use similar indicators. I liked the qualities of the stochastics and opted for it.
Time continued and I was experimenting with MA crossovers in lieu of the stochastics indicator. I found out MA crossover systems make great talking points and they sell lots of e-books, but that is about all they are worth.
Later I adopted a liking to the Bollinger Bands because of my independent studies in statistics and love for standard deviations and their meaning. I was also using the 55 EMA and the 200 SMA as a means of support or resistance.
To this point, things were working okay, but still not as well as I wanted, and I was still having too many losing days, weeks, etc.
I kept refining things and kept doing various tests to determine extreme readings for a market, which common sense told me if a market was extreme, then it would be time for it to reverse. In addition, I was interested in how trends work. I would ask questions like, "What is the determination of the trend's limit? How can I determine its range?" I never bought into the talking point to but the dips and sell the peaks, because my question always was, "How do you know this is the peak or the dip? What if this so-called dip is the beginning of a new downtrend."
2008 was the best year for me in the total developmental process of my methodology. I had a chat room at the time, and we had many people in that room. It was quite enjoyable, and we all learned something. It was actually the latter part of 2007 when I invited someone to our chat room that used the ichimoku as a standalone. I did not like the idea of using such an indicator to trade with, but open to the idea of bringing the guy in our room and having him share his ideas with my people. No one was interested, except....me.
Once I understood the ichimoku and how it worked, I stopped the usage of the Bollinger Bands and I quit a service I had with TRM bands. The ichimoku cloud was born the cornerstone of my methodology.
That wasn't enough for that year. I was having conversations with a guy who lives somewhat close to me home. We could kill a whole day doing nothing but talking trading. With this guy, though, it was nothing but talk. He was never a trader. Nevertheless, an idea clicked through an e-mail he sent me. He said, "Check this out! You are not going to believe it!" It was a course he wanted me to pay for and learn some new techniques. For me, it was simple, "Nothing doing!" It was not worth the time of day. However....something clicked. The lights went on! He had brought up a trend's range and how to discern it, and this tied it nicely with this information he sent me.
Wow! I was beside myself! I got to thinking and throwing around some formulas. Finally, I came up with a way to not only determine a trend's range, but it's correction points and the level of correction. Thus, my S&R's were born.
Later that year, a friend from the chat room sent me an indicator. He said, "Paul, plug it in and see what happens." For a minute, I thought it was a practical joke. After all we all had a good time, and were always filled with jokes. Still, I took him up on it. I downloaded the indicator and I could hardly believe my eyes. It was my S&R's! To this day, I am very thankful to the guy that did that for me.
I won't say how many indicators I used and studied because they are copious, but as far as the indicators are concerned, that is what is used in my methodology. It still was not consummated, though. In November 2010 I had a pop advertising on my e-mail. All I needed to do was click on the image and see a video, which was on trendlines. I never learned to used them right, and so I decided to watch. I applied what I saw then made my own conclusions. It was hard to believe something this simple could be this effective, but it was. The number one point about TL's is that there will be a point the TL breaks, and then a correction back to the point it broke, and then the trend continues.
Probably, the least of my methodology, but still highly effective is the SD channel. I found it when someone sent me a link to over 1,000 indicators to check out. Most of it is junk, but I'm glad I pulled out the plum.
With the complete formulation of my trading system, I believe it is the best for me and the way I trade. Each indicator is highly diverse unto itself and it has its place within the methodology. In searching for the consummate methodology it has enabled me to study copious indicators and give me what I feel is a more than excellent idea of the workability of each. I've also learned, as I have worked with several people privately that no one indicator is perfect, but only perfect for the individual. This is where I separate what I feel is very opinionated personality with what is right with regards to trading. I'm opinionated for what is right and wrong and also based on past experiences. The one thing I have noticed is when it comes to indicators and trading styles, there are no absolutes, but only what is absolute for the individual. This is why I might share opinions concerning indicators, but never push that opinion that it needs to be adopted. I have always strongly stressed the individualism of trading.
As for mam (your wife) she must be greatly angry on both of you 
