1) What goes up must come down and vice versa.
That’s Newton’s law, not the law of trading. And even if the market does eventully self-correct, you have no idea when it will happen. In short, there’s no point blowing up your account fighthing the tape.
2) You have to be smart to make money.
No, what you have to be is disciplined. If you want to be smart, write a book or teach at a university. If you want to make money, listen to what the market is telling you and trade to make money — not to be “right.”
3) Making money is hard.
Nope. Sorry. Making money is actually easy. Statistically, you’re going to do it about half the time. Keeping it, now that’s the hard part.
4) I have to have a high winning percentage to be profitable.
Not true. How often you are right on a trade is only half of the equation. The other half is how much do you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong. You can remember that with this formula:
Probability (odds of it going up or down) x Magnitude (how much it goes up or down) = Profitability
5) To be successful, I have to trade without emotions.
That is both wrong and impossible. You are human so you have emotions. Emotions can be a powerful motivator to your trading.
When you feel angry or scared in trading, take that emotion and translate it into something more productive. For example, if you’re feeling angry because you just got run over by the market, view that anger as a reason to be more focused and disciplined in your entry and exit levels on the next trade.
Common sense can be brutally honest sometimes. As traders we get so focused on the little inconsequential detaisl sometimes that we miss the world around us. I have had this discussion with too many people over the last two months that told me they were bearish on the market and were taking a beating on the “high probability” that the market would reverse. Who sets those odds by the way? Are trends more likely to reverse than persist? If so, why the hell are we studying technical analysis?
If the good trades–those that line up for me, are made with conviction, and bring little heat–are on the long side or short side, that says something about the market. The really good trades usually are in the direction the market wants to move. If I’m thinking bearish but making money on the long side, that tells me something important.
How do you build confidence? There are many ways but only one process: multiple small successes. I am very much an advocate for boring trading. What I mean by that is I trade the same edge over and over again without variation. By trading the same edge over and over again I know when to get in and when to get out. I know what to look for when a trade is working and I can safely add to my position. On the other hand, I know what to look for when the trade is not working and I can exit with a small loss. By following the rules EVERY TIME you can succeed, not in making money every time (impossible!), but by following the same plan every time. These small successes give you the confidence to trust yourself each and every time your edge presents itself. This is true in any new venture, whether it be golf, bowling, drawing, flying, etc. Each small success gives birth to greater confidence which in turn brings further successes. You can then replace a vicious circle of failure with a confident 
1) 45-55% (Average winning % of any given trader) 
1) 45-55% (Average winning % of any given trader)
Many still see making money all wrong. They make wildly inaccurate assumptions when asked these questions regarding what constitutes a winning trader: