If you are scared, avoid trading (and still more so day trading)

Actually, avoid anything that involves and requires thorough consideration if (when) you are scared (like buying a home or whatever). Scared means your decisions will be heavily affected by your emotional state (being scared), but that's how people are losing money in trading (by being emotional). So the first thing you should keep in mind is getting rid of unbridled emotions and fear is definitely one such emotion. If you can't do that (no matter how hard you want to believe in the opposite), this will be your major risk. There are other risks, of course, but this risk is the mother of all risks which cannot be offset or compensated by anything as long as you are behind the wheel and the one pushing the button (figuratively speaking)