Most professions seem at least somewhat intimidating to outsiders. Everyone knows that careers in medicine and law involve many years of training and practice. If you're into sports, just watch a track meet or a hockey game to get the hang of it serious practice and skills are also needed to play professionally, no problem winning.

Then there is day trading. Anyone over the age of 18 can open a US account with a minimum of $25,000 or $500 offshore and be self-declared day trader. But this certainly does not mean that they will be profitable.

No one is asking you to grab the books and study the basics. There are no final exams, internships or certification boards that will finally allow you to “practice” this profession.

That's only half the good news: People work like dogs in B-School, only to work like dogs for another decade on Wall Street before they can become fund managers. In a good year, they will be good to each other if they generate a 10% return in six months.

With day trading, it is not likely – but possible – that you will have returns of 100%, 200%, even 600% on a stock. In a single day.

Related: Learn more about the stock market with this $40 trading package

Mistake #1: Trading without knowledge or discipline

This crazy contrast between no barriers to entry and potentially staggering returns is irresistible to new traders every day. They may even experience some initial luckas I did. But here's the reality: If you want to become a successful day trader for the long term, you must first accept that most new traders will lose money and end their “career” as a killer in road. Then you have to accept that to avoid that fate, you have to do things differently than most people do.

First – although no one asks for it – you need it self discipline to learn the principles of successful day trading. Here is an example. When new traders buy a stock and it goes down, they don't have the discipline to cut their losses. Instead, they often buy more, reasoning that they are being smart about dollar cost averaging. And besides, if the price was high recently, it will surely come back.

Unfortunately, many stocks never return to the highs that made them social media darlings in the first place. We have a name for people who buy a lot, maybe buy more on the way down, and now have their money tied up in a stock that's going nowhere: They're “baggers,” because they're left holding the bag with only one loss to show for it.

Second, you need the self-discipline to follow the principles you have learned. If you've been through that episode of finishing a bag holder in a stock, now you have to resist the urge to do it again. When your plan isn't working and you're in a stock going south, you should sell based on the parameters you have set before you ever took up the trade. No matter what your emotions are screaming at you to do.

Related: 5 things you need to be a successful day trader

Mistake #2: Taking the path of least resistance without a strategy

There is no lack of “experts” for financial channels. They are extremely confident in themselves, and after all – they must be right, or why do they have their own show, year after year?

Taking your stock trading recommendations from such people is a mistake. Most of them are not day traders who must close their positions at the end of each day. Even if they were day traders, it's still wrong. Here's why. People regularly ask me, “Ross, I'm fast with a keyboard. Why can't I track what you buy, when you buy it, and when you sell it?” It's called “mirror trading” and it doesn't work. Not only do the markets move too fast for you to get in and out exactly when I do, but my risk tolerance won't be the same as yours.

A strategy is not the same as a hot tip; is a set of parameters that you follow. It covers the type of stock you'll be tracking and the terms you're looking for, among other things. For example, some parameters might be a focus on stocks between $1 and $10, a win/loss ratio of 2:1 or better, and a catalyst in the form of breaking news. The way to build a solid foundation of knowledge and experience is to adopt a strategy and then learn it so thoroughly that it becomes as second nature as riding a bicycle.

Mistake #3: Looking for the Holy Grail

In a sense, this is the opposite of the above mistake of not having a strategy. This grief has many strategies. it's Shiny object syndromeand this happens after traders suffer bad losses – but not career-ending ones.

I can't tell you the number of traders I've seen take this route. Immediately after throwing a losing bet, they throw away the strategy and look for something else. They will go from small-cap stocks to large-caps, then futures, then crypto, and back to large-caps. All the time, they are looking for a “perfect” combination of technical indicators that will work 100% of the time.

Related: 4 Things You Must Practice To Succeed In Trading

Trust me, I've searched thoroughly for the perfect set of pointers and I'm convinced they don't exist. I'm also convinced that I don't need to find a perfect strategy to do well in day trading – I just need to have a good plan and great discipline.

Work on your day trading profession. Basic knowledge of day trading is not that difficult to acquire. What is really difficult is to treat it as a profession. This means being willing to put in practice, keep learning and improving your skills while being patient. The Japanese have a wonderful saying: “Fall seven times, get up eight.” It's solid advice for any day trader.