1. Know the difference between how much you really CAN buy/sell versus how much you really SHOULD buy/sell. How much you can buy/sell is determined by your leverage, just how much you really should buy/sell is determined by your risk. Back when I first began trading at the U.S. you could still get accounts with 400:1 leverage. Is equally as good as it gets and even those accounts change leverage based on currency pair. I can remember having a account and buying and selling 10 standard lots. Did really well the first week and pitched my account in a couple of times (beginners luck). Margin called just 3 days later. It did not wipe out the account but man it wiped my ego. LOL! If you do the mathematics, 10 lots was $100 USD each PIP! That meant I only had 50 pips TOTAL before the account was wiped. At that point I stopped and learned about risk, leverage, stops, etc.,. I also learned about what type of trading satisfied me the best. Before you ever set your initial trade be sure to understand how to calculate the risk. Knowing that you have a specific quantity of your account at risk goes a very long way to helping you emotionally as you are trading. It allow you to consider your transactions and also will help keep emotion out of it. Use a spreadsheet if you have to some kind of indior on your trading appliions but make sure you understand the risk before you place the trade.