The primary factor that decides on whether a trader is a successful trader or not is the individual trader himself. It is his attitude that decides this. A disciplined trader conducts his trading as a business. He has a plan. He follows it meticulously. Has a positive attitude. He takes the responsibility for his actions.

Succesful traders don't take their ego with them to the trading desk. This a lesson which every trader who wishes to become a successful trader should learn from them. As a trader you should not ignore the warning signals that keep coming. Many traders who have failed to survive fell prey to their egos. They make efforts to pull out trades that have run into losses. They are not willing to accept their fault. They believe they can change the market or the market will change. They behave in this manner to satisfy their ego. This is a sure way to lose all your capital.

Another quality of a successful trader is patience. The patience to wait for the trade to reach either the stop loss limit or the exit point for booking profit. Many traders have the bad habit of holding on to a trade when it is making losses, the trade is going against them. They expect the markets to reverse, which never happens and they lose their entire capital. And there are some trader who exit quickly from profit making trades with a small profit. They do so because of the fear that the prices may reverse and they may lose the profit made so far. Whereas by exiting quickly they may be losing the opportunity to make big profits from the trades. Successful traders behave exactly in the opposite manner. When a trade is running into loss they get out at their stop loss exit points and when it is making profits, they wait and watch for the right moment to exit. Some shrewd trades under such situations gradually increment their stop loss limits. This helps them to lock the profits and not lose the chance to make big profits.

We can say the crux of the whole thing is "Understanding yourself, understanding who you are.". Find out what are you strengths and get the maximum benefit out of them. Search and find out what are your weaknesses. Work on these weaknesses to ultimately elimate them.