Here is a great article I found on EZtrader.com:

1. Be patient: pay attention to the market tendencies and follow the stock charts at least one hour before you place a trade.
2. Be smart: look for hot financial news about the company of which stock you are trading. Get hooked with an RSS service and place a trade the moment you get the news.
3. Don't be greedy: if you earned a 200% payout, stop trading and withdrawal your money!
4. Be calculated: divide your money on several different investments in order to spread the risk. Don't invest all of your money in one option!
5. Be smart (2): look for opposite influenced stocks and indices. For example, the oil prices go up - the airlines stocks go down.
6. Learn from your mistakes: start trading with small amounts of money, and increase your investment amounts only after you feel you know what you are doing.
7. Use the entire time frame for trading: hourly options are open for trade a whole hour before they get locked, and daily options are open almost all day long! Divide your trades on the same option during the entire trading time frame.
8. Take advantage of market fall down: when markets are falling, like in the past month, trade 'Put' options.

For me the basic tip to be successful in any type of market is to stick on your strategy for at least 6 months because changing strategies very frequently can cause you more. Moreover, be disciplined even if you are suffering loss. No need to panic in long course of time you will make up all you loss that is for sure.