1. Position sizing. Don't go all in, ever. Even if you think something is 100% going to happen, just don't. When I trade, which I rarely do nowadays. I usually use like 1/10th or less of my overall portfolio if i'm doing options.
2. Try to develop some system. Test that system. For example you could do paper trading (trading with fake money) on Thinkorswim. Do that for like a month and test your trades with a pretend 10k, 100k or whatever. If you have the time to do so do it, because it'll help you validate some of the moves you plan to make with real money.
3. Be vigilant about educating yourself. Like if you expect to make money trading consistently, it won't work unless you're plugged in. Follow key people on twitter, read news daily, etc.
4. Be disciplined, if a trade is not working out, don't sit there hoping that eventually it will, set some sort of stop-loss or level that you will sell regardless. That's how you usually get trapped and the trade turns into an investment. Successful traders aren't right all the time, the key is to just be right more often than you're wrong.
Most of these things aren't easy and actually require a commitment and time, that's why i'm personally moving away from it. These are just a few things off the top of my head. If you have a regular 9-5, it's astoundingly difficult to be a good trader.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Jul 21 2021 12:38pm