Traders Must read

Here is some great trading advice I have gathered around the web. These were either answers from real traders to the question “What is the best trading advice you ever received?” Or it was advice given be successful traders when asked “What one piece of advice would you give to traders?”  There are some gems in here.

Don’t treat trades like their actual cash, separate the thought of money lost and focus on the next gain.

Always use stop losses.

Don’t trade with funds you can’t afford to lose.

Don’t be obsessed by indicators .

Always, always,  put in a trailing stop and take your profit.

Decide what kind of trader you wish to be. Do you want to be a day-trader, a short term trader, or a longer term trader?

The Holy Grail of investing/trading is risk management. If you don’t have an exit strategy or proper position sizing, you are gambling. I recommend all traders spend 90% of their time perfecting risk management, and success will come with time. -Damien Hoffman

Cut losses, cut losses, cut losses. If I followed my own advice, my email would be unlisted or a Hawaii address. -Howard Lindzon

Cut losses quickly, take gains quicker when the investment doesn’t act EXACTLY the way you expected it to. -Timothy Sykes

Lots of good stock pickers out there, millions. Thats 1 percent of trading. Trade management/position management thats the next level stuff that takes you from doing this as a hobby to a living.  -Kunal Desai

The number one piece of advice I can give is this. Know your trading strategy and stick to it. Think of yourself as a baseball player. Not all hitters hit for power, some go up to the plate with the intention of hitting singles and stealing bases. Each player knows what type of game he plays which makes him successful, there is no one right way about it. Know your strategy and master it. -Leigh Drogen

I would offer two suggestions:

1) more important that picking your next double digit winner is your exepctancy per position sizing and your reward to risk ratio. You can have good results wiped out by one or two big losses.

2) Always go into a trade with a solid plan: entry, target, exit stop. Your plan should come from your diligent research. Do not blindly follow others, even if they claim to be successful. -Matt Davio

“A good trader knows that the best trades work almost right away and never takes a big loss. If it doesn’t ‘feel’ right, remove it!” -Trader Stewie

I try very hard not to risk more than 1% of my portfolio on a single trade. –Bruce Kovnar, from Market Wizards, by Jack Schwager

The first rule we live by is never risk more than 1% on a trade. –Larry Hite, from Market Wizards, by Jack Schwager

Be prepared to put in the time and the work to be successful in trading, it is a career like any other. -Steve Burns