I happened to go through the news article just now which mentions that the "Greed Index" has recently gone up.

This article combined with the number of posts that I see here which claim to earn upto $30 per day without any initial investment or spending too much time in research brings to mind how susceptible most people can be to fraud and sure losses.

There are a few things to keep in mind as an investor:

1. Filter the noise: There's a lot of noise made by many people who "claim" to be experts in trading. They openly share their opinions. Learn to filter out the noise from the facts by verifying the information before you decide to make an investment or not.

2. Know your limits: We all budget our expenses, groceries, utilities, insurance, fuel, travel, education and the list is unending. Never use money that has been kept aside for something else to complete a trade, no matter how lucrative it might appear. One never knows when you could be on the wrong side of the trade and that money could be in jeopardy. Budget your trading account and be very sure to stay within the budget.

3. Be Patient: As the old adage goes, "Rome was not built in a day." Remember there's no short cut to becoming rich. This takes patience. Have a target buy price in mind and once you have bought your assets, have a target sell price in mind. sit down very patiently waiting for the target to be breached.

4. Maintain Discipline: If you have done your homework properly and you have kept the buy, sell and stoploss prices in mind, just go for it with discipline. Remember, you have done the research and you know what you want to achieve. If you try doing anything other than what you have researched, there's a possibility of doom ahead.

5. Follow the pattern: Like I have mentioned in an earlier post, all patterns point in the same direction, if you are familiar with the Bollinger Chart, trust it. If you are only able to read the RSI chart, it's not a problem either. Just trust your understanding of the pattern and don't let influencers cause you to deviate from what you know.