1. Respect the risk in the market – if for no other reason than to save yourself from having to explain to your family where all your money went.

2. Make capital preservation your number one goal – survive to trade another day, through a professional application of risk and money management.

3. Learn with small amounts – don’t place all your life savings in the market because you probably will lose large percentages while learning.

4. Start off on a demo platform. When you’re profitable on a demo, only then should you move to a live platform. And then start off live with the smallest position size that your market or broker will allow, and gradually increase size as you demonstrate success at each level.

Manage your risk, and survive to trade another day.