Well it's a basic question from risk management area. First of all and most important - you need a trading plan. There are many ways to protect account - as many as traders. But you can try this one: First of all you should set a limit where you cannot go futher a day/a week/a month depends of your account. So if you lost X amount of money in specified period of time you should stop. Stop and think - not stop trading at all - just wait a little bit. You need to clear your brain, take some time to refresh your view, and then go back to action. You should also include in your trading plan size of your each position. Personaly I don't like to trade without stop loss - and I dont mean here visible stop loss level - just a value that I dont want to loose on trading cycle. Read also about Kelly formula - it can be used in many different ways - one of the way is finding perfect ballance between your winings and looses.