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The market doesn't care what you are or who you are. If a Harvard educated economist can explain why one of his positions went against him, he still doesn't get his money back.

Entries are less important than most traders think. Said another way, pinching pennies with entries will cost you dollars. Too many times I've hesitated to chase a stock 10 cents, and it cost me a couple bucks.

Often the hard trade is the one I should make while the easy trade is the one that fizzles.

The big money is made riding the big trends. You can definitely make a living shooting for little winners, but you have to nail big moves if you want to get rich (it does you no good to buy a stock at 15, sell it at 18 and then watch it rally to 45).

I don't know which set ups are going to be "good ones" and which are going to fizzle out. Anyone who says differently will probably try and sell you real estate by the Bay. Because of this, trading is somewhat of a numbers game. Get in very good set ups when the trading environment is conducive, play good defense and then let the law of large numbers work out.

There are many ways to trade the market, but there are no bonus points for trading a certain way. Traders need to take inventory of who they are and what they are and then find a trading methodology that jives with their personality. Then don't stray - stick with it. It's better to specialize in one type of trade and execute that trade over and over than be a jack of all trades (no pun intended).

Screen time does not always result in more profits. I've spent hours analyzing every angle of one particular stock and then had the trade go against me; I've also spent 10 seconds deciding to enter a stock that visually had a great pattern and an easily identifiable entry level and made a lot of money. This isn't an excuse to be lazy, but it does tell me over-analyzing isn't wise. On a related note, if you spend two hours dissecting a chart and deciding to play it, it's much harder to cut it loose when it goes against you because so much time is invested, but if little time is invested, it's fairly easy to dump it and move o.

I'm better at entering good set ups and then letting the market do the work for me than actively managing positions. In fact back when I was trading and working a restaurant job at the same time, I made more money when I worked lunch shifts (because I had no choice but to put a stop in place and let the chart play out) than when I sat and starred at my computer screen all day (because I was my own worst enemy; I did dumb things like panic when a stock went slightly against me).

I don't have to know why something happened to make money. In fact most of the time I don't have a clue. This is why I prefer story books and biographies to how-to books.

In many cases, being smart hinders progress because the smart guy tries to figure everything out; he constantly asks why. I've seen way too many smart people fail miserably at trading because they try to put everything in a nice, neat box. Don't fall into the trap.

Keep it simple. Trading isn't a game you're trying to figure out. If all I do is recognize the trend and commit to only trading good set ups in that direction, it's really not that hard to make money.

Think longer term. If I'm trying to make money right now, I'll probably lose, but if I'm trying to make X over the next couple months, I tend to be more relaxed and I trade better. Said another way, a baseball player should not try to go 1-for-3. Instead he should strive for 10-for-30 because it enables him to have a bad game here and there but still accomplish the goal.