An important first step is to make certain you are in a proper setting to trade, both mentally and physically. This is your business, and you need to be in a comfortable business setting and in an environment that is conducive to your needs. You must be able to concentrate on your trading, and I suggest that sharing the kitchen table with your son or daughter while they are doing their homework or sharing the table with your wife while she is fixing dinner will lead to a lot of poor trades. Similarly, you have to be prepared mentally to compete. Problems in your personal life can reduce your focus and poor health will lead to a lack of concentration. All of us have days where we are not up to doing our best. We have gone to work when we feel sick and in sports, it is somehow considered heroic to play while you are hurt. Trading, however, is different. If you are not up to playing your best game, then your portfolio will certainly suffer. You will not trade successfully using a laptop while you are lying sick in bed.

Successful traders continuously set higher goals, develop a well-scheduled planned time for studying the markets and analyze every trade. They use every loss to their advantage: to improve their knowledge of market actions. Many successful traders have told me they learn more from their losses than they do from their successful trades. I am amazed at how few beginners take the time to examine a trade and to analyze why it did not work out. Did you go against the trend? Did you see the proper support and resistance points? These are only two of the many important questions you should ask after every unsuccessful trade.

Most of our time as traders is spent on technical preparation, and I have often been asked by my students what I consider to be the most important technical tool. In my opinion, understanding and mastering the concepts of support and resistance are most critical. If you were traveling from New York to Washington, you would certainly want to know what entrance ramp to get onto the interstate, how long you needed to stay on this road, and which exit ramp to take. It is just as true in trading. Before each and every trade you need to know the exact price you want to enter the trade, how long you should stay in the trade, and most importantly, when you must get out of the trade. Support and resistance are the entrance and exit ramps on the road to financial success. If you understand these points you will be well on your way to becoming a successful trader. If you do not understand and employ these in every trade, then it will be impossible for you to achieve the success you desire and, quite frankly, you should not trade.

Another attribute of successful traders is they trade with their brains and not their emotions. Patience, perseverance, determination, and rational action will do much to determine the level of your financial success. Trading with your emotions leads to trading on fear and greed, two emotions that will guarantee trading losses at the end of the day. It is important for you to develop a pre-determined set of rules for your trading and to stick to those rules religiously. Your mentor can help you, but the rules must be unique to you and meet your needs. They should include a set of boundaries, which add focus and will help you limit the emotional reactions to your trades.

Never get into the market because you are anxious or impatient. Enter only those trades that meet the criteria of the rules you have established. In other words, Plan your Trade and Trade your Plan. While this saying may sound trite and simplistic, it is the single most important piece of advice that I can give to you. Remember that the most difficult part of trading is not prediction, but self-control.

Joe Inman is a stock mentor for Wealth Intelligence Academy®.