I am honoured to be invited as one of the distinguished speakers and panelists selected to represent SGX for this major event.
I will be sharing on swing trading strategies, with real market case studies, to show how I built a monthly 5-figure passive income portfolio with just 15 minutes a day.
See you there! 😀
Last updated: 3 July 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe
Professional traders win mainly because they follow a fixed set of trading rules, and retail traders lose mainly because they don’t. The pros are not seeing a different market. They are reacting to the same market with discipline you can copy. After more than 10,000 hours of trading professionally, the 10 rules I keep coming back to are: be disciplined, plan the trade and trade the plan, expect losses, manage your emotions, focus on trading well rather than on money, do not overtrade, trade what you see rather than what you think, follow the trend, do not repeat your mistakes, and keep your expectations realistic. None of these are about predicting the market. Every one is about controlling yourself while you trade it. That is the real gap between a beginner and a professional: not a better forecast, but a better-followed rulebook.
Here is each rule, why it matters, and how to actually apply it.
Because rules separate the planning from the doing. When you trade without rules, you are deciding everything in the heat of the moment, with money on the line and your emotions screaming. You second-guess the entry, then regret the exit, then carry the anguish into the next trade.
Rules fix that by splitting trading into two phases. You write the rules in a calm planning phase, away from the screen. Then in the execution phase you just follow them. The hard thinking is already done. That is why a professional looks unbothered while a beginner looks tortured over the same chart.
There is a second payoff. Rules make success repeatable. Once you know which rules work, you apply them again and again and get the same kind of result. Without rules, you can have a great month and still not know what you did right, so you cannot do it again.
| # | Rule | The one-line discipline | The mistake it prevents |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Always be disciplined | Follow your plan, every time | Talking yourself into “this time is different” |
| 2 | Plan the trade, trade the plan | Decide before you enter, not during | Improvising entries and exits live |
| 3 | Expect losses | Accept the risk before you click buy | Getting stubborn and bending your rules |
| 4 | Manage your emotions | When in doubt, get out | Acting on greed or fear |
| 5 | Focus on trading well | Chase good trades, not money | Letting profit-pressure ruin your execution |
| 6 | Do not overtrade | Wait for the setup, or go fishing | Forcing trades when there is no edge |
| 7 | Trade what you see, not what you think | Act on price, ignore the noise | Trading your opinion over the market |
| 8 | The trend is your friend | Trade with the trend, stack your edges | Catching a falling knife |
| 9 | Do not repeat your mistakes | Keep records, review, improve | Paying for the same lesson twice |
| 10 | Have realistic expectations | Aim for small, consistent gains | Expecting to get rich overnight |
Notice what is not on this list: no indicator, no signal, no forecast. The whole rulebook is behavioural. Now let’s take each one properly.
Follow your plan and your rules. Do not let your emotions sway you into acting otherwise. And do not create excuses to break the rules. The excuse is almost always some version of “this time is different.” It isn’t. Discipline is just the willingness to keep your own promises after the market has tried to talk you out of them.
Always cut your losses according to plan. Always let your profits run according to plan. The key word in both is “plan.” Separate your planning from your execution, so that by the time you are in a live trade, every decision has already been made in advance, when you were calm.
Losses are part of trading. Accept them in advance, and you remove most of the emotional resistance that hits when it is time to cut one. Do not take a trade unless you are willing to accept the risk, meaning the real possibility of loss, that comes with it. You will lose money on some trades. Take those losses easily when they come, and do not get stubborn and bend your rules to avoid booking one.
When in doubt or unsure, get out. Always analyse objectively. Sometimes the fastest way back to a clear head is to clear all your positions and return to a neutral frame of mind, because it is very hard to think straight while you are exposed. Above all, do not act on greed or fear. Those two emotions are responsible for most blown accounts.
The goal of a trader is to make the best trades. The money follows naturally from that. Flip the priority and you sabotage yourself: if you focus on the money, emotions get in the way and you stop making good decisions. Process first, profit second. The score takes care of itself when the swing is right.
Be patient. Do not rush into a trade, and do not trade when there are no good setups. You do not need to be in the market all the time. As the saying goes, it is better to miss a boat than to leave on one full of holes. One good trade beats three bad ones. Or, in Jesse Livermore’s words: “There is a time to go long, a time to go short, and a time to go fishing.”
Don’t concern yourself with why things are happening. Observe what is actually happening, and act on that. Ignore the noise: tips, rumours, news, speculation. Anticipate the future if you like, but trade in the present. Markets are never wrong; opinions are. When your view and the price disagree, the price is the one with your money in it.
Don’t enter just because something looks “overbought” or “oversold,” and don’t try to catch a falling knife. The easiest money is made trading with the trend, not against it. Before you enter, make sure you actually have an edge, and put as many factors in your favour as you can. Stacking the odds is not optional; it is the job.
Keep good records of your trades and your thought process. Analyse your mistakes, then move on. The point is not to feel bad; it is to not make the same mistake twice. Continuous, honest review is how a decent trader slowly turns into a good one.
Do not try to make stellar returns overnight. Aim for small, consistent returns over a long period. You will not become an expert overnight either; trading takes time to build real experience. The traders who last are the ones who expected a slow climb and got one.
Read these 10 rules again and notice something: an algorithm could enforce every single one of them mechanically, yet almost no human can. A bot will cut the loss at the planned level without flinching. You will hesitate. The rules are simple to write and brutal to follow, because following them means overriding greed, fear, and ego in real time. That gap, between knowing the rule and obeying it under pressure, is exactly where discipline and psychology live. It is the part no scanner trades for you, and it is why two people can run the identical system and get opposite results.
The difference between a beginner and a successful trader is how good their rules are, and how faithfully they follow them.
Trade without rules and you will always be second-guessing your decisions, then regretting them when they go wrong. That creates a lot of unnecessary mental anguish.
Trade with rules and you lower the stress of every decision, because you have separated the planning phase (where you make the rules) from the execution phase (where you simply follow them). And rules make success repeatable. Once you know what works, you apply it again and again for the same result. Without them, you never really learn what worked, so you cannot do it twice.
What are the most important trading rules for beginners?
Start with discipline (rule 1), planning the trade and trading the plan (rule 2), and expecting losses (rule 3). Most beginner blow-ups come from breaking exactly these three: improvising live, and refusing to take a planned loss.
Why do 90% of retail traders lose money?
Mostly behaviour, not analysis. They overtrade, chase, trade their opinion instead of the price, refuse to cut losses, and have no written rules to fall back on. The market is the same for everyone; the discipline is not.
Do professional traders actually follow strict rules?
Yes. The professional edge is less about a special indicator and more about consistently applying a fixed rulebook while managing emotion. Process over prediction.
What is the single best trading rule?
If forced to pick one, “plan the trade, trade the plan.” It is the rule that contains the others: it forces discipline, pre-accepts losses, and removes most emotional, in-the-moment decisions.
How long does it take to become a consistently profitable trader?
Longer than most beginners hope. Rule 10 exists for a reason: trading takes time to build experience, and the realistic path is small, consistent gains compounded over years, not overnight returns.
Now that I have shared all my best trading rules, which one do you think will make the biggest difference in your trading? Let me know in the comments.
And if you are just getting started, read the pillar first: The Beginner’s Guide to Trading and Technical Analysis.
Want the system these rules sit inside? Grab the free 15-Minute Swing Trading Starter Kit. It is the exact once-a-day routine I use to trade any market in 15 minutes, rules and all.
About the author. Spencer Li is the founder of Synapse Trading and a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe) with 15 years of trading across stocks, forex, crypto, commodities, and bonds. His trade log is public, 404 trades, losses left in. He teaches low-risk swing trading in 15 minutes a day, one system for any market.
Education, not financial advice. Synapse Trading is not licensed by MAS to advise on investment products. Trading carries risk of loss; past performance is not indicative of future results.
The Beginner’s Guide to Trading and Technical Analysis (pillar) · Trading psychology: how to master your mind · How to create a trading plan · Risk management for traders · The trend is your friend: trading with the trend
This coming weekend, I am very excited to be invited as a guest speaker to share the stage with Jim Rogers and other investment experts at the “INVEST GLOBAL 2015” event in Singapore. I will be speaking on Sunday 12th April, from 4:40PM to 5:25PM, and I will be having a booth near the seminar room on both days. See you there! 😀
Synopsis:
As you enter the world of trading and investing, do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the large number of different strategies and varied approaches? With the limited resources available, how can you maximise your capital to get both stable and aggressive returns, while keeping your risk low?
In this seminar, we have simplified the trading & investing strategies used by professional fund managers, and how you can apply this systematic approach to building your wealth, and watch in amazement as your portfolio grows day by day, with little monitoring required.
Learning Points:
• The systematic approach to generating income and building wealth simultaneously
• Little-known but powerful tactics to supercharge your portfolio returns
• How you can start building your portfolio immediately with little capital
After over 30 successful runs of our previous free seminar, we have received a lot of positive feedback, which we have used to revamp the content to create an even more content-packed seminar.
This new seminar will be packed with many more real-life practical examples, and will feature the new “Investment Wheel” fund portfolio strategy, which I used to build my wealth from scratch and achieve financial freedom at 27.
We will also take the chance to introduce some new features of our training program, such as the new LIVE! trading support groups, and a new fund trading opportunity with US$40,000 funds provided for each and every program graduate.
This is the level of confidence we put into our training and the success of our graduates, which I am certain you won’t find anywhere else. (Note: This offer might end any time once the fund has recruited enough traders, so it is on a first-come-first-serve basis.) However, a slot is guaranteed once you have completed the training program.
To find out more, register for a free seat via this link: http://wp.me/P1riws-53l
What is the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him how to fish?
Here at Synapse Trading, our goal is not to sell you some magical blackbox software, but to impart real professional trading skills which can stand the test of time and work under all market conditions. Our head trainer, Spencer Li, has traded professionally at private equity and proprietary funds, and is an internationally certified CFTe under the IFTA.
We are proud to announce that another batch of successful graduates have learnt the secrets of behavioral analysis and how professional traders time the market! Now it is time for them to put what they have learnt into practice, and start reaping profits from the market!
And once again, we have 100% positive reviews and a strong YES! when asked if they would recommend their friends and family.
We take special pride in our post-course support and training, and we can’t wait for the next monthly LIVE! market workshop to get some hands-on practice together with our new batch of program graduates!
“Lesson was structured well and at reasonable pace. Learnt alot of new stuff in just 2 days.” – Darren Choong
“This is my re-sit of this workshop to learn more of the HFT Stock Scanner as well to refresh those set-ups. That I have learned. Good program and software to help trader make decision in their trade.” – Edmund Ong
“Good. Comprehensive and systematic course.” – Soo Yue Ni
“As a beginner, I feel that this workshop is easy to understand. I feel that I am more confident in trading now. Definitely worth every cent that I paid for the workshop. Thank you.” – Andy Seah
“Insightful trading setups. The 7 Step Formula is clear and actionable. Glad to attend this workshop.” – Eng Soon
“A very good in-depth course for current traders with some experience.” – Wilson
“Appreciate that the course runs through a good deal of information, especially important ones such as the emotional and mental portions which should prove helpful in practice. And also it is good that there are monthly workshops.” – Lim Sheng Jun
“Useful frames are provided to help learners to kickstart preparation for trading.” – Tan Song Nee
“Comprehensive training made simple via the setups. The set-ups allow new traders to have the confidence to trade.” – Clement
“Pretty good start for a beginner like me as it is easy to understand & guideline to follow. But need time to digest the knowledge that learnt & gain.” – Chan Jun Ping
“Very comprehensive programme, with many learning points whether you are a beginner or a trader with some experience. You can read 200 books and pay “tuition fees” to the market to try what works. Or you can attend the course to learn a tried and tested system.” – Gavin Tan
“It was very informative and provided many insights to trading.” – Ong Chin Hock
“Great course for both seasoned and new traders.” – Goh Jun Xian
“The teaching materials build from basic to advance. The pace is moderate. Spencer is well prepared. All items/systems converge – methods, mind, money management. Huat Ah!” – MK Chan
“I’m glad to attend the workshop/course with no regret. His talk was insightful and very much enjoyed.” – Lyons Tan
“Synapse Program provides the practical know-how of trading that is not found in traditional textbook knowledge.” – Andrew Ng
The next intake will only be in June 2015, but we allow advanced reservations, so email us before the limited slots get filled up to avoid disappointment! See you at the top! 😀
Email: info@synapsetrading.com
To see more testimonials, please visit https://synapsetrading.com/testimonials/
To find out more about our training program, please visit https://synapsetrading.com/the-synapse-program/
For program dates in 2015, click here.
