It’s a fact. If you trade, you will lose money. Even the best traders aren’t able to predict the market 100% of the time. The objective is to be right more times than wrong. The ability to to do this often takes time and experience. Practice doesn’t make you perfect here but it can make you profitable. Below are a few tips that may leas the way to profitable trading.

1. Protect your principal. A good rule of thumb is to never bet more than 10% of your principal on one trade. And never bet everything on one single trade. By moderating your risks, you’ll live to trade another day.

2. Know why you are placing the trade. Have you looked at all of the market conditions and indicators to assure they are optimal? Don’t trade just to trade. A good trader knows when to jump in and when to just stand by the sidelines.

3. Never hold a losing trade overnight. Stocks can gap up or down when the market opens. Holding a losing trade overnight exposes you to a large amount of risk.

4. Get your money and get out. Greedy traders often take big losses rather than big

profits. When you have a reasonable profit, take it.

5. Set your stop loss and adhere to it. Hoping that a trade will turn around and lowering the stop loss only adds to the risk of principal and greater losses. The first loss is usually the smallest.

6. The trend is your friend. Don’t try to swim against the tide. You cannot change the behavior of the market. You can only react to it. Watch the market indicators for optimal conditions and execute your trade. Always observe the market objectively. See what is really there. Not what you wish were there.

7. If you have two open trades that are losing money, stop trading and re-evaluate what the market conditions are. Do all of your criteria match the plan for the trade that you executed?