(level 3) Another 5 Ways to Avoid Losing Money Trading Forex

11. Picking Tops and Bottoms - Looking for bargains works well at the supermarket but not trading foreign exchange; try to trade in the direction the price is going and your results will improve.
12. Not Trading Around News Time : Most of the big moves occur around news time. The volume is high and the moves are real; there is no better time to trade fundamentally or technically than when news is released; this is when the real money adjusts their positions and as a result the prices changes reflect serious currency flow (compared to quiet times when bank traders rule the market with their customer order flow
13. Exiting Trades Poorly : If you put on a trade and it's not working make sure you exit properly; don't compound the damage. If you're in a winning trade don't talk yourself out of the position because you're bored or want to relieve stress; stress is a natural part of trading, get used to it.

14. Being Too Smart : The most successful traders I know are high school graduates. They keep it simple and don't look beyond the obvious; their results are excellent.
15. Trading Too Short-term : If you're profit target is less than 20 points, don't do the trade; the spread you pay to enter the trade makes the odds way against you when you go for these tiny profits.

Understanding Spreads | ForexGen

What Is A Spread?
FIRST, spread is the difference between the ask price (the price you buy at) and the bid price (the price you sell at) quoted in pips. If the quote between EUR/USD at a given moment is 1.2222/4, then the spread is 2 pips. If the quote is 1.22225/40, then the spread is 1.5 pips.
SECOND, it is how brokers make money. Wider spreads result in a higher ask price and a lower bid price. As a consequence, you pay more when you buy and get less when you sell, making it more difficult to realize a profit
Brokers don't typically earn the full spread, especially when they hedge client positions. The spread compensates the market maker for taking on risk from the time it executes a client trade to when the broker's net exposure is hedged (possibly at a different price).
Why Are Spreads So Important?
Spreads affect the return on your trading strategy in a big way. Probably more than you think. As a trader, your sole interest is buying low and selling high. Wider spreads means buying higher and having to sell lower. A half-pip lower spread doesn't sound like much, but it can easily make the difference between a profitable trading strategy and an unprofitable one.