Stay Focused

Here are some key things to focus on for all equity trades (stocks, options, forex):

• pick one or two stocks (whose industry that your familiar with) to follow at first so you can see how they move and react to market conditions.
• mark the trend... is it going up, down or sideways (not changing price) - the trend is your friend
• mark the areas of support and resistance (where does the price consistently stop rising or stop falling)
• use technical indicators to time your trade (stochastics, RSI, MACD, Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, Candlestick setups)
• set your entry and exit points (limit and stop loss) and monitor daily to make adjustments if necessary
• take profits even if it seems it may go higher - a trade completed is better than a trade defeated or a bird in the hand, etc....
• take emotion out of the game, the market will play you like a fiddle if you don't have a plan
• stick to the plan unless all hell breaks loose... otherwise if the setup was there and you took it, don't get out just because of one bad candlestick...let the trade develop... you have your stop loss there for a reason, it will take you out of the trade if necessary

And in the words of Kenny Rogers:

know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run....