What are the things you would advice a new trader to focus on? How should one go about when beginning his / her trading?
It's very important as a trader to remove emotions from your trades. You need to have a profitable system that you employ according to rules. If you can't follow your own rules (e.g. always using stop losses), emotion is taking over, and you will experience losses because of it.
Successful traders see three types of outcomes: big wins, small wins, and small losses. Successful traders never have big losses, because they learned to cut losses before they grow. Losing traders let their losses run out of hope, because they are ruled by emotions.
I would also say that risk management is extremely important. Don't risk 100% or even 5% on any one trade. Going all in (especially with leverage) is the sure way to blow up your account. Trading is a
grind. It's hard work. It's not for getting rich quick.
Also, you will never be right 100% of the time. If you're lucky, you might be right 65% of the time. So you need to take trade setups with risk vs. reward in mind. If you're risking $100 to make $100, you're losing money (because of commissions) at a 50% win rate. You need to take more profitable trades. Risking $100 to make $300 is much more appropriate.
