When you are day trading, you had better be committing yourself entirely to that goal, or you stand a good chance of losing, even when using Forex autotraders. If you have a goal without being fully committed, then it will usually fail, and this is never so true as when you are practicing about day trading. Speed is an essential element to being a serious day trader, and you cannot achieve speed and clarity of thought unless you are 100% focused on what you're doing. Learning to focus intently starts when you first practice day trading, by using "paper trading" on a demo account. If you have not developed the necessary concentration by the time you have funded your account you are going

to pay for it. Even though paper trading cannot emulate the emotions of using real money, the practices you learn with paper trading are invaluable. When you are day trading, you need to achieve a specific mindset that allows you to react and respond appropriately within seconds. There is no room for distractions such as the dog barking or a baby crying, and toilet breaks should be scheduled in-between active trades as far as possible. This is not to say that you must focus for the length of time that the market is open. Even though day trading is exhausting, it does not demand that of you. But when you are actively trading, searching for opportunities and particularly when you have a trade open, then you must remain focused in order not to blow your account with a silly mistake or a missed exit. Assuming that you have the principles of trading learnt, and have been developing strategies that work with the markets you are approaching, then there are two overriding rules that you need to focus on to maintain a winning disposition and outcome. Above all, your attention should be paid to these commandments. The first rule is that you must protect your principal. This can surprise would be traders who believe that the main focus of trading is to make money. The fact is that protecting your principal is a necessary prerequisite to making any money at all, as without your capital your efforts will be dead in the water. This applies to day trading even more than other types of trading, because you need to have more capital involved to make a decent profit, given the smaller price moves that you will be gaining from. The second commandment emphasizes the necessary detachment. Again, it is not to make money, but it is “trade to trade well”. Any time you start counting up how much you're winning or losing in dollars and cents, you open yourself up to losing your focus and allowing emotion to cloud your judgment. It is far better to think of trading prices as merely numbers on a chart, rather than as real money, and if you trade well then the money will be there at the end of the session. Above all, when you are day trading you must remain focused and concentrate on these two overriding rules. If you do so, then you will have positioned yourself in the best possible way to make day trading a profitable enterprise for you.