Risk management is not the act of adding a stop loss after deciding to trade. It starts with deciding whether the trade deserves risk at all. A stop loss is only one part of the control system.
Serious traders think in layers: account-level risk, daily loss limits, per-trade exposure, and the quality of the setup itself. A technically valid trade can still be a poor risk decision if it requires too much room, arrives in the wrong session condition, or does not offer enough potential payoff relative to the capital being exposed.
Good risk management keeps you in the game long enough for skill to matter. It protects your capital, but just as importantly, it protects your ability to think clearly the next time a valid opportunity appears.