Hi Zulu
Purely my personal opinion and not to be interpreted as anything other than that.
You have the right idea but few comments below.
Just saw Dutchies thread re real time trading. Great thread/advice to novices and well worth using correctly to replicate actual sizes to be taken per your trading plan.
Paper trading also good if just starting out so long as you write notes and analyse why entry and pyramiding and exits and GSLO placing etc and back test methodologies/reasoning.
Back to Dutchies - Re actual small trades with provider suggest avoiding marketmakers and go to DMA with GSLO and be careful of stops being too close or you will be stopped out of the market and be aware of dividend payments due.
Game is to stay in the market with good risk mgmt and sound back tested methodologies that suit you as an individual so you need to be v honest with yourself and keep being honest to yourself- forget all the noise surrounding you.
For example If blue chip like ANZ it has v volatile moves daily as institution traded but trending bull for many years now weekly monthly. So then if you know share/cfd from research and history and charting and it is blue chip then chart its recent past lows and new highs and determine stop based on these and other indicators that suit you/your trading system both mechanical and above all use your trading plan to the letter but do modify both as required/experience teaches and then backtest again.
Above is N/A to daytraders as time-frame too long but if you are trader who is more short/medium in CFD's then follow the trend over a few days/weeks and run with your profits but use GSLO trailing stops. Cut your losses asap if trend against you on entries and reenter on either buy/sell signals or if trending and you r still unsure based on your indicators use small position for double entry and test the market. Your entry point is not as important as the way you enter. Adding to winners is more important and taking losses quickly and increasing winning positions and realising profits before tops if this is in your trading plan or whatever your plan tells you regarding profit taking.
Buying low and selling high is not the game since the market is continually changing but there will be a trend pattern which you must identify with individual stocks if not purely day trading. Buying on the way up and selling on the way down works better for risk mgmt and profit taking and capital preservation and growth.
Also try using exit signals as buy signals in reverse if you're not doing this already. Again start small and slowly add to your position as the price confirms the trend. There is no holy grail and no matter how complex some traders try to make entry and exit signals on their charts and mechanical trading systems - keep it as simple as possible. (No offence to the purely mechanical traders as this probably suits those who work in other professions and trade for a hobby)
Losing money in the markets is a given and can knock most out of the market before they can recover due to poor $ planning and mgmt skills and emotions but making those losses much lower than your profits taken is key to successful trader. If long term then you are really investor not trader although I see this argument on another tread some time ago and its rather a mute (egocentric) point as anyone in any business who is increasing their wealth and capital growth in any form over more than 1 yr consistently is in my opinion clearly successful for themselves unless money used/profits are less than the bank rate or managed fund return or interest debt due on mortgage or credit card etc or on another tack they may just be enjoying the journey and making a few dollars more along the way.
Great trading - "successful trading is experienced through hard work and long hours like any successful business - the difference is in the size of the takings, but the model remains the same".