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Each of the rules below is important, but when they work together the effects are strong. Keeping them in mind can greatly increase your odds of succeeding in the markets.
Rule 1: Always Use a Trading Plan
A trading plan is a written set of rules that specifies a trader’s entry, exit, and money management criteria for every purchase. Test a trading idea before risking real money. Known as backtesting, this practice allows you to apply your trading idea using historical data and determine if it is viable. Once a plan has been developed and backtesting shows good results, the plan can be used in real trading.
Rule 2: Treat Trading Like a Business
To be successful, you must approach trading as a full- or part-time business, not as a hobby or a job. If it’s approached as a hobby, there is no real commitment to learning. If it’s a job, it can be frustrating because there is no regular paycheck.
Rule 3: Use Technology to Your Advantage
Trading is a competitive business. It’s safe to assume that the person sitting on the other side of a trade is taking full advantage of all of the available technology. Using technology to your advantage, and keeping current with new products, can be fun and rewarding in trading.
Rule 4: Protect Your Trading Capital
Saving enough money to fund a trading account takes a great deal of time and effort. It can be even more difficult if you have to do it twice. It is important to note that protecting your trading capital is not synonymous with never experiencing a losing trade. All traders have losing trades. Protecting capital entails not taking unnecessary risks and doing everything you can to preserve your trading business.
Rule 5: Become a Student of the Markets
Think of it as continuing education. Traders need to remain focused on learning more each day. It is important to remember that understanding the markets, and all of their intricacies, is an ongoing, lifelong process. World politics, news events, economic trends—even the weather—all have an impact on the markets. The market environment is dynamic. The more traders understand the past and current markets, the better prepared they are to face the future.
Rule 6: Risk Only What You Can Afford to Lose
Before you start using real cash, make sure that all of the money in that trading account is truly expendable. If it’s not, the trader should keep saving until it is.
Rule 7: Develop a Methodology Based on Facts
Taking the time to develop a sound trading methodology is worth the effort. It may be tempting to believe in the “so easy it’s like printing money” trading scams that are prevalent on the internet. But facts, not emotions or hope, should be the inspiration behind developing a trading plan.
Rule 8: Always Use a Stop Loss
A stop loss is a predetermined amount of risk that a trader is willing to accept with each trade. The stop loss can be a dollar amount or percentage, but either way, it limits the trader’s exposure during a trade. Using a stop loss can take some of the stress out of trading since we know that we will only lose X amount on any given trade.
Rule 9: Know When to Stop Trading
There are two reasons to stop trading: an ineffective trading plan, and an ineffective trader. An ineffective trading plan shows much greater losses than were anticipated in historical testing. An unsuccessful trading plan is a problem that needs to be solved. It is not necessarily the end of the trading business.
An ineffective trader is one who makes a trading plan but is unable to follow it. External stress, poor habits, and lack of physical activity can all contribute to this problem. A trader who is not in peak condition for trading should consider taking a break.
Rule 10: Keep Trading in Perspective
Stay focused on the big picture when trading. A losing trade should not surprise us; It’s a part of trading. A winning trade is just one step along the path to a profitable business. It is the cumulative profits that make a difference. Once a trader accepts wins and losses as part of the business, emotions will have less of an effect on trading performance. And finally, Setting realistic goals is an essential part of keeping trading in perspective.
Source: Investopedia
