Rules, only apply to how I think, in case anybody cares. Note that I don't think it's a particularly killer set of rules, but they're important for fixing mistakes I've made:
Avoid SSF. Too many moving parts (rand/dollar/resources/flavour of the week/whatever) for me. Lost some good money in 2009. Index futures are significantly more predictable and rational.
Don't look for both longs and shorts, getting all cross-eyed about which way it could go. Focus on one direction, wait until the situation falls into your lap. Simplifies thinking and you don't second-guess yourself as much. Even when it does look about perfect, wait a bit longer, because it will surprise you and give you a better entry.
Long 80+% of the time this year. The market likes long. In the absence of news, the market will drift up. After a big drop, reversals move fast because much of the market is long-only. Even relief rallies are useful for this. The US market likes to make cash on the upside, especially when it shouldn't go up and everyone is expecting a reversal, so often overshoots.
Caveat to no-short: when it's really, really high and EU has obvious unresolved issues, grow a pair. Short it. There's a relative ceiling above you and huge chasm below. But generally wait until it's been rising for a while, all news flow is happy and people are talking about taking out the highs. I've lost more opportunities by not doing this enough. Not sure we'll see many opportunities for this, though.
Don't trade for the sake of doing something. When it's in the middle and you're not sure, do nothing. Set a couple alerts and leave the market alone.
When you're feeling confident and you've had a string of good moves, watch yourself. Take a break.
Don't be scared to take small profits, against all advice. Made good money with small 1-2k bites on 'random' days, which helps a lot with covering mistakes.