“Being active in trading means that you are buying and selling assets on short-term movements to make profits from the price movements on short run. The mentality related to an active trading strategy is different from the long-term, buy-and-hold strategy which is found among passive traders. Active traders think that short run movements and catching the market trend are the main moments where the profits are generated in the financial market.

There are several techniques used to achieve an active trading strategy, each with the suitable market surroundings and risks inherent in the strategy. Here we will show you the four most common active trading strategies and the built-in costs of choosing each of them.

If you want to be a successful trader you should have the following qualities:

> Capital management abilities
You should have a considerable amount of capital at disposal with a predefined risk/reward ratio. It is recommended to keep the trade size reasonably low.

> Knowledge over markets
A day trader should keep both eyes in fundamental analysis and technical stuff as well. Only the combination of both analyses would bring a good result. It is vital for a day trader to have as much knowledge as possible over the markets.

> Having a good strategy
Even if you choose a day strategy, it is important to adopt your strategies with your current situation. A successful day trader must come up with a new strategy almost every other day, or at least adopt their current strategy to the new market conditions.

> Self discipline
Success without discipline cannot be achieved. It is very important for you to monitor prices for wide periods of time without making any decisions. It needs lots of discipline. Just think that, if you rush on your decisions and after you see the market moving in the opposite direction with your decision, it hurts! So, it is better to waste an opportunity, than to guarantee a loss.

The target is to remain successful in the long term, which is vital to establish good habits along the journey. These habits can assist on the achievement of two goals:

• Achieve greater success as time goes by
• Learn from your mistakes and increase the ratio of winning trades.

Before jumping into any position, you should create an idea about how much can you afford to lose and when you should implement your exit strategy, especially your downside risk.

So, you should strictly decide with yourself where the point of pain stands, so you cut any order outside this limit, in order to keep your trading account safe and healthy. Constantly allowing losing trades to go beyond this point is a recipe for failure.

Another habit of successful traders involves defining the size of the positions. For every trade you open, you should decide on the size of this position, according to the size of your account. This can help you keep risk under control.

Another good habit of successful traders is not rushing to trade. Trading decisions should be well though and considered carefully. This means, a trading plan should be prepared in advance and you should stick to that plan. Do not Log in based on your emotions of excitement, greed, or fear. Do not act randomly. Act mindfully. There should always be rational reasons for getting into and out of market positions. The fact that a market is rapidly moving in one direction or another may not constitute a rational reason for getting into a trade.