To be successful in trading game, there are some rules to follow. By violating rules, you will definitely on losing side of game.

Regardless of all trading books and newsletters that have cropped up, all of market gurus are sharing and following same trading rules. You can't live without them if you want to succeed in your trading.

Here are rules to successful trading, in random order, and they apply in all trading situations:

1.PLAN YOUR TRADE AND TRADE YOUR PLAN. You must have a trading plan to succeed. A trading plan should consist of a position, why you enter, stop loss point, profit taking level, plus a sound money management strategy. A good plan will remove all emotions from your trades.

2.THE TREND IS YOUR FRIEND. Do not buck trend. When market or stock is bullish, go long. On reverse, if market is bearish, you short. Never go against trend.

3.FOCUS ON CAPITAL PRESERVATION. The most important step that you must take when you deal with your trading capital. You main goal is to preserve capital. Do not trade more than 10% of your portfolio in a single trade. For example, if your portfolio is $10,000, every trade should limit to $1000. If you don't do this, you'll be out of market very soon.

4.KNOW WHEN TO CUT LOSS. If a trade goes against you, sell it and let go. Do not hold on to a bad trade hoping that price will go up. Most likely, you end up losing more money. Before you enter a trade, decide your stop loss price, a price where you must sell when trade turns sour. It depends on your risk profile as of how much you should set for stop loss.

Most of us don't have a clue how much money we spend and what we spend it on. We spend it until it's gone and hopefully we can find some more to spend.

The conventional wisdom is that, if you want to know details of where your money goes, you keep track of every penny in some sort of ledger. This is by far most effective way to handle this problem.

By keeping track of your purchases you will be able to make decisions that could reduce your expenses. You can cut out unnecessary expenses and put your money toward more important things.

It is best to keep ledger with you and write down this information as you make purchase. Naturally, if you have a family they will also have to do same thing.

Like I said this is a fantastic way to know where your money is going. The problem is that most people don't stick to it for more than a few days.

AN ALTERNATIVE

Keeping tract of your money is a means toward a goal. You want to control your spending so that you can buy things you need and some of things you want. It's as simple as that.

Since you already know what your regular bills are going to be each month, only thing you need to keep up with is your Household Expenses. This includes a lot of things like groceries, car gas, clothes, etc. In order to do this you will need to know how much money you have to use for this purpose.

The Budget Worksheet available at Budget Stretcher will allow you to "brainstorm" your expenses to determine what you need to spend your money on each month. You can print a copy of Budget Worksheet at:

http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/budgetworksheet.html

Here is how it works:

First, you sit down and try to think of everything you spend money on and write it down. If you have a family it's best to get them involved in this process. You won't be able to think of everything at first but you will get a good idea.

Next apply an estimated dollar amount to each of these expenses. Here again you are guessing. You have to be as realistic as possible.

Now that you have an estimate of what you spend on your Household Expenses each month you need to see if you have enough money to cover it. To do this you simply total your regular bills and savings and deduct it from your net income.