1. In order to become a successful trader, you must have sufficient risk capital, the loss of which (or parts of) will not completely destroy your morale - you must be able to handle this ordeal calmly and this should not effect your lifestyle in any way. Your mind should be on the market, not on your finances. You must concentrate on the task of trading, and must remain calm, in order to make the proper trading decisions. You should never use the last remains of your finances for trading - the responsibility and the pressure would be too great, and your mind would stray towards your finances, and not towards the market situation, thus greatly increasing the possiblity of mistakes.
2. Don't rush to open a real account after only a few days of practice. Practice for as much time as necessary for you to feel confident on your own. Do not compare yourself to other traders - just because it took them a certain amount of time, doesn't mean you don't need more. Your primary goal in this practice is to develop an individual trading style or technique such that, at the very least, your next week's trade earnings are not less than this one's, and your monthly earnings should increase every following month. Only after achieving this result, should you open a real account.
3. When the amount of winning trades surpasses the amount of losing trades, and your account balance is increasing, you have achieved a positive result in trading. However, if you have 5 losing trades for $2000 total, and 1 winning trade for $3000, that is nothing to brag about since you probably made it through only by luck, or by the fact that you took an insane risk to use the maximum number of lots for your trade. You should never depend on luck outside of the casino or the lottery. Not on the market - eventually your luck will come to an end.
4. Its not enough to achieve the above results on your demo account. It is equaly as important to understand why it happened, and to develop your profit-making individual trading style. Intuition is very important, but basing your trading decisions solely on intuition is unacceptable.
5. Set up strict limits for your losing trades, so that you don't lose more than you can handle. These limits should be within 3-10% of the total sum of your account, depending on its size. If the market starts going in the wrong direction, don't try to think of excuses why you shouldn't close that position - as soon as the losses reach your set limit, immediately close the position. Even if the market starts going in the right direction 5 minutes later, you have eliminated the risk of it not turning around. You will make such trading rules, so that you could trade by them, not try to go around them - you would only be hurting yourself if you did.
Remember that if your account contains less than $3000, you should not trade using more than one lot. If $3000-$5000 - never more than two lots, but only trade two lots only if it is looks safely in the current market situation. If you have $10,000 on your account you may trade two lots, but never more than three. If you follow these rules, you will considerably limit the risk factor. Trading too many lots at once would be dangerous and unwise.
6. One of the most deadly mistakes a trader may commit, one which shall destroy everything, is when the trader (after already losing $200 on a position) begins to think of excuses not to close this position - perhaps the market will suddenly turn around and move in a favorable direction? The trader keeps thinking of this, and doesn't have the heart to close the falling position, waiting until this happens. The market does not do any favors for anyone. Eventually the trader will be forced to close the position, with losses of $1000, or even greater. Not only will the trader lose money, they will lose morale too. They will lose confidence in themselves and their decisions. The reason for committing this mistake is simple - greed. Losing $200 doesn't hurt your opportunity to not only make up your losses, but also make additional profit. Losing $2000-3000 in 1 or 2 trades, you completely destroy your opportunity to earn further money! In order to avoid this trouble you must follow a simple rule - never go over the risk limits you set for yourself. Close your positions immediately when your losses reach these limits!