Every trade I do has a possibility of losing. But I do many trades in a year and the probability is that the result of those many trades will be a profit. To me trading is a business not a gamble. Of course I have losing trades but that's part of the business. Owning a casino is a business.
I want to share my list of personal rules, following which I have become a successful trader: 1) The most important conclusion, which I made for myself and which is directly related to the trading practice, allowing to solve the problem of emotions on Forex and to cut the way to a stable success - to trade only with trading rules of entering and leaving positions with control of risks, which will be my trading strategy. Not to change the rules during trading, not to be prompted by intuition. I make any changes to the rules by testing the result on a significant period of historical data in advance. 2) For diversification of risks I use several trading strategies simultaneously (but only strategies with proven efficiency). 3) Do not give up after a failure, but do not rely solely on hope. 4) I set a goal not only to earn, but always remember and control risks.
@deaddog You are so right. It's very important to stick to your plan and not get carried away by your emotions. I believe in doing a proper market study, then making an analysis of my previous strategy results and then formulate a new plan to execute a profiting trade.
My rule of thumb is always using stop losses. I have seen many traders who have blown accounts and lost everything because they did not use stop losses.
My stop losses have almost caused me to blow my account. Explain that one, Mr. Guru. Before posting your rule of thumb, you should consider your audience. Your advice is not accommodating of everyone. Therefore, you should really STFU.
As for me, the most important rule for trading is to do what I know. Before opening a deal I should realise the reasons for opening and further planning of the deal, i.e. stop loss, risk/reward ratio, take profit. I never open a deal without thorough planning. That is why I prefer to trade long term, just because of the fact that I have the time to make a sober decision. I am strongly convinced that it is better to miss an opportunity rather than opening a deal without any analysis behind it. I analyse the market every day and I manage to plan my further deals. I don't like the fuss because it always leads to failures. More than that, I do some analyses of my previous deals and I usually try to figure out my mistakes or some places to be improved. You may find my process of making financial decisions boring, but it is the only way for me to make my trading profitable.