First, how do you want to trade- scalp? Day trade? Swing? Position?
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2nd is that you need to develop an edge. This is an area that I feel a lot of new traders approach wrong. Don’t look for a “when this happens, it means this is going to happen.” Look for a “when this happens, it means that there is slightly more of a chance that this will happen” (Hope that makes sense).

Some examples of common ‘edges’ traders use-

When price approaches the top or bottom of a range, they trade a reversal.

If price breaks above a recent high, they go long (or short if price breaks below a recent low).

They look for chart patterns to form (head and shoulders, double top, etc)

They simply follow the trend.

Look for something that you see develop the same way each time on that particular pair. Again, remember, you are not looking for something that always happens, you are looking for something that is slightly more likely to happen.
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Then develop a way to enter. For instance, if you trade a reversal as price hits the top of a range, figure out how you will enter. Will you wait for price to touch the edge of the range? Will you wait for it to start reversing?

Maybe if you are simply trading the trend, you wait for a small pull back, and enter when price hits support/resistance, or a fib number.
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Then figure out where you will place your stop. Your stop should be placed at the spot where you know the trade is not going your way. An example is if you range trade, its the spot where you know price is definitely breaking out of the range and not reversing. You want to use as much support/resistance between your entry and your stop as possible.
You might also try the ATR tool for stop placement. For myself, I simply use support and resistance and whole numbers, both with a buffer.
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Look for a potential profit target. The other end of the range, or the next major level of support/resistance for instance.
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Look at the risk if you are stopped out verses the potential profit if you are correct on the trade (Risk verses Reward). Develop a minimum risk to reward ratio and only take the trade if it is better.
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Develop a whole money management system. Look at expectancy-
how much you make when you are right, verses how much you lose when you are wrong, verses how often you are right or wrong to develop an overall system.

You goal is not to be right on every trade. You goal is to fully understand that you will be wrong and lose money on a good percentage of your trades. Therefore concentrate on making as much as you can when you are right (let your profits run) and losing as little as you can when you are wrong (cut your losses off quick) so that over time your system is profitable.

Cheers
Tek

Also, studies have shown patterns in individual psychology that effects the way traders thing. An example is that studies have shown that, when incorrect suggestions have been placed, a person loses the ability to make a logical decision….

An example: A study was conducted that had a person select which of two lines was longer. The study would place an individual in a room with a piece of paper that has 2 lines on it with one line being longer than the other. The study would then send others into the room that would pretend to be part of the study, and these other people would select the incorrect line on purpose while the individual watched. The individual would then be asked to select which line was longer, and after viewing others select the incorrect line, would find themselves having a hard time deciding which of the two lines was longer.
This is just one of many predictable traits that is part of our individual psychology.
Therefore, one needs to study and understand these traits. They are such a big part of trading, yet most people do not even realize it. David Waring used to say “Psychology isn’t a part of trading. Trading is psychology- period!”
In fact, it is such a big part of trading that the reasons that most traders lose money fall into one of only a few psychological categories (Greed, fear, the need to be right, the lack of discipline, the feeling that they are in a contest with the market, etc). The specifics vary, but usually the causes of failure fall into one of only a couple of very easily identifiable causes.

China loans all that money back to the US Gov which makes the Yuan weaker and the US dollar stronger.

If China stops loaning all that money…back to the US Gov, then as people buy stuff from China, the Yuan keeps going up and up causing prices of goods from China to go up and up.

At the same time, the US Gov will not have enough money to finance its spending. The Gov finances its spending by selling Tbills (which is a fancy name for a long term loan- they just borrow the money). The 2 biggest buyers of this debt (the largest buyers of Tbills) are China and Japan. Should they choose not to buy Tbills, then we have a problem. A big problem.

The gov will need to fund its spending. They will try to sell Tbills. If there are not enough buyers, what then? Some options are-

They can rasie interest rates really high to make the Tbills more attractive. Some say this will happen and the US will see interest rates soar.

They can raise taxes.
They can simply spend less. Seems like the best choice huh? What are the chances they will choose this one.
They can raise the retirement age. Social Security is one of the bigger expenses

Not too good. Kind of bad. Could be better.
Okay, truth is- really really lousy.

This first part is just an overview of how it all works.
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What does the US debt come from?

The debt comes from excess government spending. The government runs a very large budget deficit. In other words, each year the government SPENDS WAY MORE MONEY than it brings in from collecting taxes and the other ways it makes money.
Therefore it must borrow the rest.

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How does the Gov borrow money?

The Gov borrows money by selling Government Securities (Bills/Bonds/Notes). When someone buy a government Bond or T-Bill, they are loaning the government money.
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What is the Debt?
The total debt is the total amount of government securities outstanding (in other words, you total up all of the government securities that have to be paid back and that is the total U.S. debt).
Right now, it is about 14 trillion dollars.
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How do governments pay debt back?
They do it by issuing new debt (they take out new loans to pay the old ones back).
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Let’s break the loans down-

There are Government Bills (T-Bills):
These are typically loans for less than a year.

There are Government Notes
These are typically loans for 2 to 10 years.

There are Government Bonds
These are typically loans for more than 10 years.

So you can see that, when the government borrows money, it has a choice as to when they want to pay those loans back.
Really the loans never get paid back. When the securities become due to be paid back, the government sells new securities to pay for the old ones.
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One more interesting part that is not as widely known.
When a government sells securities, it is often to foreign investors. This creates a huge demand for the currency as the foreign investors must exchange their own currency for the currency of the country selling the securities. This strengthens the currency of the country selling the securities.

In the case of the U.S., this is how the U.S. offsets its huge trade deficit. In other words, selling government securities is why the USD does not weaken due to the huge trade deficit.

The US Debt right now is about 14 trillion
It is expected to hit 15.5 trillion next year, which would about equal the total GDP (the debt will be 100% of total GDP).

About 45% of this debt is owned by China and Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

The interest payments on the public debt are presently 18% of the federal budget.

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Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget general fund. It is a separate account and has its own source of income. Social Security payments do not go into the general fund, they go in the Social Security trust fund. The trust fund is supposed to be used to pay future benefits.
Currently, there is more being payed into the Social Security Trust Fund than is being paid out to beneficiaries. What’s left over is routinely being “borrowed” and used as if it were general budget revenue. This is part of why in the 1990s we had a budget surplus (the government borrowed all of the excess social security money and replaced it with IOUs and then claimed it had a surplus).

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/ProgData/fundFAQ.html