The first and most important lesson you should follow is to first find a mentor who has been successfully trading the stock market for a long time so he/she can guide you in the right direction. You can try to learn the stock market on your own but I can guarantee that you will end up losing a lot of money due to your inexperience or lack of knowledge. A mentor can tell you what mistakes he has made and the ways that he has made money in the past. If you can find a good mentor, this will save you a lot of money and headache.
Another important lesson is to practice your day trading techniques and strategies with a demo or simulated trading account first. These accounts will not use your real money and it will tell you if you are ready to become a day trader. If you are not making money on a demo account, you will probably not make money on a live account with your real money.
The third lesson is to only trade with money that you can afford to lose and not affect your daily lifestyle. If you are trading with money that you need to pay your monthly bills with then you are guaranteed to fail. The reason is there is no guarantee of profits when you are day trading. Some days you will lose money and some days you will make money.
The forth lesson is before you day trade each day, decide how much you are willing to risk and stick to it. If your day trading activities reach your target loss for the day then stop trading for that day and shut off your computer. This keeps your losses in control and you live to trade another day.
Lastly, have a day trading plan in place before you trade each day. Know exactly what stock you are trading, the entry and exit price and more importantly, what price you will get out if your trade doesn’t work out. If you have a plan every day then you increase your probability of success.
Day trading is not easy and it takes a lot of hard work. Take your time to learn about the day trading business to see if it is the right fit for you.