Have you set your trading goals for this year? If not, why not?
It is important for every successful trader to set goals as part of their trading plan and now is a great time to set yourself up for success for the rest of the year. The importance of goal setting cannot be overstated. If you do not set goals then how will you be able to gauge if you have been successful?
Setting goals will be of limited value if you do not review them often. I know of many successful people who put their goals on the wall next to their desk as a constant reminder of what they are aiming to achieve. This allows their mind to work on the goals, often subconsciously, as they go about their activities. People often wonder, what is the secret of their success, it is often the simple act of setting and reviewing goals.
If you are a beginning trader and don’t know what you should be setting as a pip goal, might I suggest starting small and adjusting them up every quarter.
You should have short term, mid-term and long term goals.
Short term may be a daily pip goal, mid-term could be monthly to a one year goal, long term could be a 5 year or more goal.
Goals need to be specific. The goals “I want to be the best trader”, or “I want to be greatly improved” don’t give your mind what it needs for actual improvement. Make sure your goals are concrete such as “I will make 100 pips a week” or “I will back-test my trade models for 2 hours a week”. If you find you are hitting your goals easily, then your goals are too low. Adjust them immediately! If you do not, you will not have much growth if any. If you find that you are not hitting your goals then you need to do one of two things. The best thing to do is to take a look at what you are doing and figure out what is keeping you from hitting your goals, find a mentor or accountability partner to discuss where things are going wrong, then make the changes necessary to hit your goals. The other thing to look at is whether your goals are just not realistic, and when I say not realistic I mean the goal similar to the one I had as a child to dig a hole to China in my backyard. That is not realistic. However the goal to get 500 or even 1000 pips a week may seem difficult, but since there are other traders out there doing that, then it is realistic. Perhaps it isn’t a good goal to have when you first start trading, but it might be a great goal for you to have reached by the end of the year.
So have you set goals? If you don’t have goals written down yet, and haven’t committed yourself to doing so, then let me share with you one thing. Of the traders that I have met, I haven’t found a successful trader that didn’t have goals set. Conversely, of all the unsuccessful traders that I have met, I have found that most of them did not set goals, or did not set specific enough goals.
If you want to be successful in trading, Set Your Goals.
Paul
