Many traders and investors lose just because of entering the market at the wrong time. Tim Aspray has written this Advanced Entry Techniques For Any Markets article on Forbes that you might want to read. The fist thing before you make an investment or enter into a trade is to determine where your stop should go either on the long side or the short side. Based on the position of your stop, you can then calculate the risk. With this calculation, you will find often times that your risk is 8-10% which is to be frank quite excessive. Just a few losing trades with this level of risk can drain your trading account. Just one or two big losers in a year will reduce your chances of being profitable. So keep you risk below 2% always.