Regardless of your trading style; day trading, swing trading, or position trading there is a simple step by step plan you can use to improve your odds for success.
1. Start by paper trading until you can be consistently profitable on paper. I would also recommend doing a lot of practice trading with a real-time demo account. This is the next best thing to real trading without risking money.
2. Regardless of how much money you have, start trading with a small amount of money and work up over time. You need to make all your mistakes with the smallest amount of money. Trust me, it will be a lot less painful!
3. If you are a day trader, avoid the very small time-frames like 1 or 2 minute as you get a lot of signals which can lead to over trading. These fast time-frames are full of market noise and insignificant price activity.
4. Make sure that all your entry criteria are met for the trade setup. Don't jump the gun until everything is in place.
5. If there are no clear signals in the market, then do nothing. Forcing trades almost always ends up with losses.
6. Always place your protective stop immediately after entering the trade!
7. In your studies you will be exposed to many techniques. You will improve your results by concentrating on only one or two strategies. Get real good and consistently profitable with them first.
8. Don't watch too many currencies at one time. This leads to too much confusion and indecision about which trade to take. I wouls stick to two or three of the major currency pairs.
9. Win, lose or draw don't deviate from your strategies or change things.