The traders have all the news well before you do, so if you are trying to nickel and dime your way to riches by picking a little spurt to long here or a little sag to short there, don't–they've already done it and moved on by the time you spot it.
Also, be very, very careful of the proportional share you trade with, compared to the larger account value. I was trading potatoes once, um, a while back, and some rich guys tried to steer away from a long-established trend. I got a margin call during one of their 'force it' moves and the brokerage confiscated my whole account value and sent me a bill for the rest. Instead of paying off my mortgage, I was paying on my debt for two years. Without the extra traffic, the general trend was right and I would have profited nicely–but I didn't have enough reserve for when it suddenly went radically against me. I do have one consolation, though, something like 90 millionaires got caught in a still larger default, and several dozen went to jail.
Feel lucky that your account balance is "slowly decreasing"–things could be much worse. Check the charts for agricultural spreads and straddles, many of the patterns I used to rely on don't work any more, but see if you can find some of your own, then play it safe. If nothing else, go to currencies and short the dollar and go long on almost anything else. Good luck.
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