The more one learns about trading the more aware he or she should be of certain things that one should be careful not to do. The following is a crash course starting with the basics and dabbling with some of the more advanced. First of all it is very important to learn your keys properly. This will save you from making keystroke errors which could cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars. There is nothing more embarrassing than accidentally getting long instead of getting short in the market because of hitting the wrong key. If you have a serious devotion to learning to trade well, you will spend the necessary amount of time to learn your keys well.
Another mistake you should avoid is searching for reasons not to cut a losing trade. When you’re trading it is best to restrict yourself to several time horizons. When you start extending those horizons to days or weeks or months, especially if the trade was made based upon the five and fifteen minute candlestick patterns, you are probably doing yourself a disservice. The real reason for not liquidating the trade not being that it looks good on the wider time horizon, but rather that you simply do not have the discipline to cut the trade off.
Avoid trading during the dead hours of the day. The best trading always happens in the early morning and before the close of the equity markets. There are also noticeable volatility spikes when European markets open and close, and the same is true for the Asian markets. If you do not see a well defined trade then there is probably not a trade to be made.
Another thing to be wary of is the way that new big economic numbers can have an effect on prices. It is advisable to stay flat (to keep a position off) until after these numbers are released, thus avoiding being caught in front of a train, although it is fine to join the party after the pair’s direction has been chosen. This essentially defines the difference between gambling and trading. I have known traders to make big guesses before these types of numbers come out. Some knew what they were doing and others didn’t, but they all generally understood that it was as effectual as a coin toss. Although this is not to say that in many other cases one can find a discernable edge in the marketplace.