Decide firstly on your investment level. Then set a specific goal for what level of return you want to make. Thirdly, and most importantly, decide what's the most you're willing to lose. Then think of your trading as a defined trading cycle which will end when either you achieve your goal or you hit your downside parameter.

An example of this is as follows:

Investment level: €10,000
Target Growth: €15,000
Acceptable Reduction to: €7,500

We will come to why it's so important to set out your parameters but in essence it gives you a trading compass for when you'll have to make key decisions on your trades. It's completely up to you to pick your own appropriate levels - funding, timings, goals and acceptable downside.

Are you going to be a frequent or occasional trader? What kind of instruments will you trade... volatile ones or steadier ones? Are you going to be a fundamentals trader, technical trader, trend trader or what? Will you trade lots of things or will you focus on one or two items? How often can you or do you want to check your positions? What's your time horizon - short, medium or long term?

If you're a beginner, we recommend that you keep it as simple as possible. Get to know just one thing, one tradable item. Get to know its quirks and what can happen in its charts.

All these things are important but what you're looking for is the right style and approach that suits your views and your lifestyle.

It's generally a good idea to have an overall view on the market. Do you think it's a bull or a bear market? What things are on a general uptrend? What items are on a consistent downtrend? What sectors are under pressure? What sectors are under-valued?

Once you have your macro view on the market it will help you to decide for or against given potential trades or to go with the one you're most confident about. For example, say you're looking at the Pharma sector and you're generally bullish about that sector. If you're faced with two possible trades... .one long and one short... ... all things being equal, you're probably going to favour the long trade because of your bullish view on the sector.

Now you are looking for your entry trade. It's really important to give yourself the best chance of getting off to a good start. There's no rush. Observe a small number of things closely. Study the charts. Follow the news. Talk to people. Note how volatile or otherwise the instrument is. Where do you see value going long? Where do you see value going short?

The day then arrives when you want to open your 1st trade.

So you're ready to trade. Whether based on fundamentals, technical chart indicators, a hunch, a gut instinct, a tip, news, an article or whatever, you see a good value entry point for a trade.

The first thing you do is admit that you might be wrong. Financial spread betting is all about managing your downside risk and, if your general trading instincts are good, the upside should take care of itself. Then you define an amount of money that's the most you're willing to lose if you're wrong.

Let's say that you decide that €400 is the most you're willing to lose. You look at the charts again and see what the item's volatility is like. Markets such as Oil, Wall St, Gold and Currencies can easily move a few hundred points in hours or days. Others are less so... perhaps a low value stock.

If the item is very volatile, you may realise that it's not right for your opening trade as too much of your capital would be at risk. If you put €1 stake on WTI Crude, max downside of €400, your stop-loss has to be at 400 points away or less. You don't want to trigger your stop-loss by a short spike against you so you need to make sure your position has adequate breathing space.

So, by defining your a) overall trading cycle parameters; b) max allowable downside per traded view and c) checking the volatility patterns of your chosen item, you'll have a good framework for deciding on d) whether to do the trade or not e) what initial stake size is appropriate and f) where to put your stop loss order.

Using this discipline will help you to take emotion out of your trading habits. Say you're going long on a €1 stock and you want to make €100 without losing more than €50 and the stock's volatility is rarely more than 20 points. Immediately you can see the trade: no more than €1 or €2 stake, stop loss at 75 cents and profit order at €1.50.

No matter what your scale of trading, whether it's €1 or €100 stakes, these simple disciplines will steer you towards better decisions at key times in your trading cycles.

You are underway…Now you're looking for your entry trade. It's really important to give yourself the best chance of getting off to a good start. There's no rush. Observe a small number of things closely. Study the charts. Follow the news. Talk to people. Note how volatile or otherwise the instrument is. Where do you see value going long? Where do you see value going short? The day then arrives when you want to open your 1st trade.