1. Stop Loss: Set protective stop as soon as you enter a position. The stop price should be decided before entering a position. Move protective stop to break-even when price moves in your direction (more than the average daily range). It might be a good idea to sell a part of your position (for e.g. one third) for a reasonable profit. By doing this, there will be less pressure to sell early since you have already cashed in; and if the trade goes against you, there is at least some profit from the trade. Use trailing stops for the rest of the position to ride the move.
2. Psychology: Never trade impulsively, stick with your edge/plan. Never ever add to a losing position (unless you already have a plan thought out to scale into a position at different entry points); add only to winning positions (progressively smaller amounts). Don’t be influenced by others; stick with your edge/plan. It is important to forgive yourself when you make a trading mistake despite your best efforts.
3. Technical Analysis: Reduce or dispose your position if a trend line you are watching is violated, especially with heavy volume. Don’t hope that the trend line break is a fake one. Never trade based on indicator divergence (with price) alone. Divergences can go on for a while, with price continuing to make higher highs and the indicator continuing to make lower highs (or price making lower lows with indicator making higher lows).
4. Money Management: Try not to lose more than 2% of your capital on a single trade. Stop trading to re-examine the situation if you lose more than 6% of your capital within a month or have consecutive losing trades.
5. Hard Work: At the end of the day, record your trades and the thought process (including charts if possible) that went into making those trades.