Short Term Trading Week Starting: 30th Oct, page-387

Good traders tend to be hardworking and shrewd men. They are open to new ideas. The goal of a good trader, paradoxically, is not to make money. His goal is to trade well. If he trades right, money follows almost as an afterthought. Successful traders keep honing their skills. Trying to reach their personal best is more important to them than making money.
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Many loser think that they would be successful if they could trade a bigger account. All losers get knocked out of the game by a string of losses or a single abysmally bad trade. Often, after the amateur is sold out, the market reverses and moves in the direction he expected. The loser is ready to kick either himself or his broker: had he survived another week, he might have made a small fortune!

Losers take this reversal as a confirmation of their methods... and do the same thing again.
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A trader who wants to survive and prosper must control his losses. You do that by risking only a tiny fraction of your equity on any single trade. Give yourself several years to learn how to trade. Do not start with an account bigger than $20,000, and do not lose more than 2 percent of your equity on any single trade. Learn from cheap mistakes in a small account.


Trading for a Living - Alexander Elder