I'm not exactly a newbie, but I definitely am new here. I just thought it would be an interesting topic, but I doubt many traders would honestly divulge that information.
Not at all. The secret to trading was disclosed years ago by Buzzy Schwartz, who incidentally used to post here, in his book Pit Bull.
Paraphrasing, he said the secret is to stop caring about being right or wrong. Only care about making money. That will free you to take the small losses that we all know we should take but which our egos get in the way of taking. It's one of those ideas that is brilliant in its simplicity, but you probably have to have some experience to get it.
Personally, there were other insights that came over the years. Probably the most important was to only trade in the direction of the next higher time frame. If you're daytrading 5 or 1 minute bars, only trade in the direction of the 60 minute. Will you miss some profitable trades? Yes, but you will miss many more losers.
For a new or unprofitable trader, backtesting can be crucial. You probably won't discover the grail, but you will learn what doesn't work. You will also see the effect of stop loss placement, which is crucial. Another important concept is MAE, maximum adverse excursion. If you backtest a system or entry strategies, you will find that there is a point of no return for most losses, ie MAE. After going against you that far, they seldom come back.
For a discretionary trader, unfortunatley there is no substitute for sitting in front of the screen for a few years and absorbing lessons. You learn the power of levels and important pivots.
Good luck.