I just read an excellent article in Stock, Futures, and Options Magazine on the web.  It's called "Beating the Odds for Trading Success: What Does It Take." It was like this article was written for me and all of you trying to become a consistently successful trader.

You going to get more out of the article if you read it yourself because my summary won't do it justice.

How can 90% fail? 

1.    Markets are like the weather, patterned, not predictable; like being blown by many different types and temperatures of wind
2.    A Trader needs to develop his or her own meterological model for how these winds work together
3.    It take courage to enter and exit trades
4.    It requires focus, determination, self-knowledge, and self-confidence to develop courage
5.    It takes time to create the focus, determination, self-knowledge, and self-confidence
6.    It take money to survive the time and losses

Some more random notes:

Mackenzie is a very skilled scalper who makes $300,000 a month trading mini-Dow futures and currencies. 

He didn't make any money for 3 or 4 years. 

Most traders require at least a few years to learn the tough lessons. 

His losses are hurting less and he has been able to take the emotion out of trading. 

It's like the movie, Shawshank Redemption, you just have to crawl through 2 miles of &@#% to get to the other end.  And then you find that there is another 2 mile &@#% pipe to go through

If your willing to get on your knees and wade through the 2 miles and you get to the other end, you are good to go

Don't jump in before your ready

Do Research

Manage your Risk - it took Jim 11 years to manage his risk effectively

Gain Confidence in your Method

It costs $100,000 to get an execute MBA from NYU or Columbia.  Why should learning to trade successfully cost less 

As I said, you will get a lot more out of reading the article.  It's free to sign up for an online subscription and only requires an email address at http://www.sfomag.com.  The article is on the front page and is called, "Beating the Odds for Trading Success: What Does it Take?"