* Knowledge: know the craft, know what you are doing, don't trade on assumption.
* Know how to control your emotions: it's very important that you know how to control your emotions like fear and greed in trading.
* Know how to manage your risk: knowledge and emotional control gives you money, but proper risk management skill protect your money and your gains
Learning never ends and so to be more successful and profitable in every areas one find themselves adopting the strategy of being informed matters a lot. Just as the saying goes " if you're not informed you're deformed". Seriously an investment in knowledge pays a whole lot and most times people neglect this fact and venture into things cause they want to make money faster, but along the line they get a hit back this is the most reason people fail in trading.