1. Don’t trust the opinions of market gurus. Remember that it’s your money at stake, not theirs. Listen to what they say, then step back and do your own homework.

2. Don’t believe in a company. Trading isn’t investing, so you need to focus on the price action and forget the balance sheets. Leave the American Dream to Warren Buffett.

3. Don’t break your entry and exit rules. You made them for bad trades, just like the one you’re stuck in right now.

4. Don’t try to get even. This isn’t a game of catch-up. Every action you make has to stand on its own merits. Take your losses with detachment and make your next trade with absolute discipline.

5. Don’t trade over your head. If your last name isn’t Kass or Cramer, stop trading like them. Just concentrate on playing the game well, and stop thinking about making money.

6. Don’t seek the Holy Grail. There is no secret trading formula, other than good position choice and solid risk management. So why are you looking for it?

7. Don’t forget your discipline. Anyone can learn the basics of the trading game. Sadly, most of us will fail because of a lack of self-control, not a lack of knowledge.

8. Don’t chase the crowd. Tune out the groupthink and dance to the beat of your own drummer. Get out of the chat rooms and off the stock boards. This is serious business.

9. Don’t trade the obvious. Everyone sees the most perfect-looking patterns, which is why they set up the most painful losses. Simply stated, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

10. Don’t ignore the warning signs. Big losses rarely come without warning. Don’t wait for a lifeboat before you abandon a sinking ship.

11. Don’t count your chickens. That delicious profit isn’t yours until you close out the trade. Trail stops, take blind exits and do everything possible to get that money into your pocket.

12. Don’t forget the plan. Remember the reasons you took a trade in the first place, and don’t get blinded by greed or fear when the position finally starts to move.

13. Don’t have a paycheck mentality. You don’t need to get paid every week or every month, as long as you take advantage of the opportunities as they come. Classic wisdom: traders book 80% of their profits on just 20% of the days the market is open for business.

14. Don’t cut corners. There are very smart folks out there working full time to take advantage of your mistakes. Fight back by examining your results, updating your plan and finding working themes for the next session.

15. Don’t ignore your intuition. Listen to that calm little voice that tells you what to do and what to avoid. That’s the voice of the winner trying to get into your thick head.

16. Don’t hate losing. The best traders lose money on most of their positions, so get used to the pain of losing. And there’s a side benefit: the losing teaches more about winning than the winning itself.

17. Don’t fall into the complexity trap. Traders who can’t see the market are looking for it everywhere except in the price action. In truth, a well-trained eye will find more profits than in a stack of technical indicators.

18. Don’t confuse execution with opportunity. Expensive software won’t help you trade like a hedge fund. Pretty colors and flashing lights make you a more nervous trader, not a better one.

19. Don’t project your personal life onto your trading. Trading gives you the perfect opportunity to find out just how messed up your life really is. Get your own house in order before you play the financial markets.

20. Don’t think that trading is fun. The trading game should be boring the vast majority of the time, just like the real-life job you have right now.

\Credits: The Swing Shift by Alan Farley

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Stocks fell around the world, with the benchmark index at a nine-month low, and commodities slumped on mounting tension on the Korean peninsula and concern Spain’s ailing banks signal a widening European debt crisis. The German bund yield dropped to its lowest in at least two decades.

Four Spanish banks said they will combine as regulators push lenders to merge with stronger partners and after the International Monetary Fund yesterday urged the nation to take more steps to overhaul its financial institutions. The North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity group said on its website that the country’s military was put on alert, and the U.S. announced plans yesterday to conduct anti-submarine exercises with South Korea following the March 26 torpedoing of a warship.

“Increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula, coupled with deepening concern about sovereign debt risks in Europe, are affecting investors’ sentiment,” said Kim Young Joon, a fund manager at NH-CA Asset Management in Seoul, which manages $9.7 billion in assets. “But much of North Korea’s comments appear bluffing. I don’t think another disastrous event will happen.”

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Stopped out at 109.09, loss of 406 pips. Too bad. Who cares. Rules are rules.

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Stocks are likely to continue their aggressive decline and shed another 20 percent in value as the world economy weakens, economist Nouriel Roubini told CNBC.

As the market slides into correction territory, Roubini said weakness in euro zone countries and a slowdown in the US and other developed countries will make things even more difficult for investors in the months ahead.

“There are some parts of the global economy that are now at the risk of a double-dip recession,” said Roubini, head of Roubini Global Economics. “From here on I see things getting worse.”

“There is that risk because the problems on the macro level are first in the euro zone. Then in China there is evidence of economic slowdown…Japan is in trouble and US economic growth is going to slow down,” he said. “There is also regulatory risk because we don’t know how financial reform is going to occur.”

Investors then should focus on buying debt from countries that are solid economically.

“Apart from cash I would invest in short-term government bonds of countries that don’t have a serious debt problem, countries like Germany and maybe Canada, a few other advanced economies that from a fiscal point of view are sounder than the weaker economies,” he said.

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