If you know the pitfalls of trading, you can easily avoid them. Small mistakes are inevitable, such as entering the wrong stock symbol or incorrectly setting a buy level. But these are forgivable, and, with luck, even profitable. What you have to avoid, however, are the mistakes due to bad judgment rather than simple errors. These are the deadly mistakes which ruin entire trading careers instead of just one or two trades. To avoid these pitfalls, you have to watch yourself closely and stay diligent.
Think of trading mistakes like driving a car on icy roads: if you know that driving on ice is dangerous, you can avoid traveling in a sleet storm. But if you dont know about the dangers of ice, you might drive as if there were no threat, only realizing your mistake once youre already off the road.
Although trading involves risk, never treat it like gambling. You must have a solid trading strategy, one which you plan, test, and revise repeatedly. You need to stick to this strategy, and never act on spur-of-the-moment decisions. All you do when you act on a gut feeling is jeopardize any and all of the thoughtful planning youve done by giving yourself completely over to...