If you know the pitfalls of trading, you can easily avoid them. Small mistakes are inevitable, such as entering the wrong stock symbol or incorrectly setting a buy level. But these are forgivable, and, with luck, even profitable. What you have to avoid, however, are the mistakes due to bad judgment rather than simple errors. These are the "deadly" mistakes which ruin entire trading careers instead of just one or two trades. To avoid these pitfalls, you have to watch yourself closely and stay diligent.

Think of trading mistakes like driving a vehicle on icy roads : if you know that driving on ice is deadly, you can avoid traveling in a snow tempest. But if you do not know about the hazards of ice, you may drive as if there weren't any threat, only realizing your mistake once you are already off the road.

Too many traders are fixed on only one market. They may trade only the forex USD/EUR, or the E-mini Russell, or the E-mini DOW, or just certain stocks, etc. While they may feel a certain sense of expertise or mastery over this one market, no one, no matter how experienced they are, can predict what will happen all the time. These people are setting themselves up for catastrophe, because there will inevitably come a time when they'll make a mistake. And, with no diversity in their trades, they will lose everything they've worked so hard to gain.

The key to selecting a market isn't to search for one you appear to understand better than the others. That will be something of an illusion. There is however one market you can always rely on : the one which is moving. You know that you should buy when the market goes up and sell when the market goes down. A moving market will always be worthwhile, regardless of if you have never traded a single share there before.

Pay serious attention to trendlines, both in the markets where you are already trading and the markets you are considering. If one of your markets is regularly troubled or merely moving sideways, get out of it and move on to another. If you suspect of profitable trading as sticking not with a market but with a trend, irrespective of which market it's in, then you are thinking successfully.

The key, naturally, is you have got to keep a watch on markets where you are not currently trading. Staying abreast of your options is of equal importance as watching what you are acquainted with. Here's where research and experience come into action. Becoming familiar with several markets ( and the way to learn about them ) requires time. But don't allow that to deter you. Also, do not feel like you have got to understand each option at the beginning. Pick 1 or 2 different markets to literally trade in, but also select a few solely to watch. That way, you will see how your own trades work, and you may compare that activity to markets you may not know about ( yet ).

The only real way to find out about which markets are wrong and right for you is to observe them. Watching a selection of markets will give you the knowledge you'll have to use when it is time to change gears and find that evasive moving trend.