Try to create a plan you can follow. This will help you from being swayed by the conflicting reasons to buy or sell. You do not have to create a highly structured or rigid game plan, but at least think in terms of a cohesive method for dealing with wins, losses, and in between. You must believe in your plan or you will not follow it.

1. The first step is knowing who you are through introspection. This is the one step many people ignore, which leads to an infinite number of ensuing problems.

2. The second step is to analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you possess mathematical abilities, perhaps studying an objective trading method such as a moving average system might be one direction to start. If you are more abstract, perhaps reviewing a subjective technical study such as chart patterns is a better start. If you are extremely creative, learn some of the basic ideas of technical and fundamental analysis and develop your own unique methods. Do not look for the ''best'' method, but the one most compatible with your way of thinking.

3. Review the money management principles and apply them to your trading method. For example, changing entry and exit points can change the percentage of profitable trades. Are you willing to wait long periods of dry spells for the big winning trade, or would you rather take quick small profits?

4. Determine how much money you can afford to risk and always risk a small percentage of capital (less than 5%, 2% for novices) on any trade. If paper trading is possible, it may help in simulating some of the potential pitfalls with your trading methods. You can never simulate the real experience of trading, but paper trading can help to alleviate some of the minor ones which add up to major ones. 

5. Trade markets that do not present tremendous risk, such as lower volatility markets or ones without huge dollar swings. Trading can be a time consuming business, so be prepared to spend quality time trading. It can be beneficial, at least initially, to observe how markets move to develop better trading methods.

6. Learn to stick to your game plan, but realize the importance of flexibility, especially when starting out. Many traders complain if they had only stuck to their original plan they would have made money, but they quickly forget the times they would have lost money had they stuck to their plan.

7. Learn to accept mistakes and losses. You will often find your biggest advances in knowledge arise from serious mistakes of the past.

You must develop a rule structure to follow when trading the market. You cannot just trade in a state of anarchy, but must make a few assumptions and rules in such an unstructured environment. Rules provide a solid foundation for growth, but they inherently limit you as well. You must be prepared to create new rules, or revise existing ones, in order to grow in the ever changing trading environment