There are 3 basic legs to trading: the Strategy, the Psychology and the Risk Trade Management

A large part of day trading is mental. One needs consistency in one's mind since the market is largely a random walk and you're in the fight and need to be alert and ready to act reasonably. When the times the market does set up to give you an edge and you must be mentally prepared to take advantage of it, like a cat ready to pounce on the mouse it's been waiting for for a length of time.

One needs to wait till the right situation develops and then pounce on it. One has to wait till the right moment and then act. One needs to simulate trade until they have all the mechanics figured out and can exercise smoothly.

It is a game of not making mistakes and keeping one's losses to a minimum. You need to be disciplined and not violate any of your rules. These rules are the result of individual back testing and verified by the trader. You always need to protect your capital with a stop market order and keep risk at a minimum. If the risk is too great, pass on the trade.

One must be awake and not emotionally stressed. One needs to be ready, clear headed in order to make decisions and act on them and master their emotion. One must be able to deal with bad trades and control their emotions in order to bounce back quicker. One need to cultivate the confidence to trade without emotion.

A detailed trading log is a must. One needs to hold oneself accountable. You need to record how you felt and what you were thinking when you made the trade. What indicators you used and how the trade developed. This is a kind of biofeedback that allows you to talk to yourself rationally and can be referred to. This allows you to see if your strategy is working or not.

One needs a clear strategy and objectives to back up against. Trade with a set of rules! Keep a list of your day trade plans on index flash cards so you can review the strategy if necessary before you make a trade. Back testing your strategy is vitally important. One needs to back test and convince oneself that the strategy is on target.

Money management rules need to be rigidly adhered to. Risk no more than 2% on any trade. Without proper equity management new traders are tempted to take risks far out of proportion to the amount of equity they have in their account. One can lose around 50% of their trades and still make money with good disciplined money management policies. Trading can be a very prosperous career choice as long as you are armed with a winning strategy, sound money management and have you emotions and psychology on an even keel.