you need to loosen the distributor and turn it till you get the ball lined up with the pointer, that is the proper timing, anything else isn't right. are you sure you have the timing light hooked up to the right wire? what arrow are you talking about? its a ball you need to find. there are some other marks but those are for valve timing or some other thing. Number one cylinder is the one on the radiator end of the engine, and unless you get the ball in the window it will never run right, you can fudge it a bit to get a little more advance, but getting the ball lined up with the pointer, is always a good bet. there may be some issue with a flywheel that isn't right some how, but barring that you need the ball to line up...
