Here's a clue. A trader learns from experience and over a long period of time formulates a plan on how to best trade which suits their disposition. They then create rules to help keep them on track, ie, reminds them on how best to tackle trading. There are no right and wrongs as such, but like a golfer, you need a style to best win the game. Now, it doesn't matter how good a trader you are, you will experience losses. The secret is, when you hit losses, there was no right or wrong, there was no mistakes, that trade just happened to not work out. When you create stops for example, the majority should more or less work in your favour according to your trading style and plan, but those stops which were a stuff up, forget about it, there is no perfection. Trading is probabilities, some work out well, some don't.
The biggest mistake a trader makes is regret and blame (on themselves) because a trade didn't work out as they expected.
With trading, everything and nothing works, it depends on how YOU behave as a trader. It's all in the head.
Everything you said in the last few replies was very well put. I agree with all of it. I've always been interested in the markets and short term trading. I've tried a bit here and there before, but recently something has just hit me. I don't know what it is that got me going, but I've probably read more books in the last three or four weeks than I've read in the last ten years. I'm seeing a lot of common themes, one of which is the psychological part of it. I have a few strategies put together that I think will work for me. I'm practicing now on paper money, of course, but I hope to feel comfortable enough to switch over to real money sometime in the next 3 to 6 months. I'm not looking for answers so much as I'm looking for opinions. I'm always curious about how other might be looking at the same thing and seeing it in a different way. Larry Connors, for example, totally changed my view of how things work in the markets and really gave me some great ideas that have helped a lot.