Goalsetting | Forex Factory

Options

Go to
Permalinks
Print Thread

Goalsetting

  • #1
  • First Post: Dec 22, 2009 5:01am Dec 22, 2009 5:01am
With a new year upon us it’s time to take a break and use this time to review and reflect on the year passed. Well this is what i will be doing anyway http://www.tradefxlive.co.uk:/blog/w...icon_smile.gif . There have been many lessons learnt this year, but I think I will blog abouth this at a later date. I think its more importat to know where you are goiing than where you have come from, this being said the need to set Goals is an important exercise.

Without goals it can become difficult to to see the wood from the trees. Let me share one of my goals with you all and then I will show you as Traders how we can set goals using a simple model which I learnt during my education in becoming a Management Accountant.


One of my goals this year is to stay in the business of trading. You may think this is fairly simple but you have to remember the cliche statistic of ‘90% of traders blowing their account!’. To help me achive this this goal I have set my self some 3 simple rules:

  1. Only trade from 6am-10am
  2. No more than 3 trades per day
  3. Only risk 1% of my account size

Providing I stick to the above 3 rules I will have a better chance of being around to fight another day.

Now how do you go about and set your own goals. Well my advice would be to use the S.M.A.R.T model. This helps you break down a goal into 5 pieces.

  1. Specific – What is your goal and why is it important to you.
  2. Measurable – Choose a goal which you can measure.
  3. Achievable – You must beleive that the goal is possible. Something that will take you out of your comfor zone will keep you motivated.
  4. Realistic – You must have the skills to acheive your goal otherwise you are fighting a never ending battle
  5. Time – Please set a time limit otherwise you will not have the motivation to acheive your goal. Setting a time goal gives you something to aim for.

I hope the SMART model helps you to set your own goals. Please feel free to post your comments and I will be more than willing to give you my views.
Also dont forget ‘if your goal is not written down its not worth having’. So please spend 30mins and really write your goals out and have this as part of your Trading Plan.

Bhav

  • #2
  • Dec 23, 2009 10:34am Dec 23, 2009 10:34am
Nice read! Why only 4hrs trading? Is that the best time to trade in your opinion?

I will have a plan of your ideas tommorrow afternoon when Im not at work.

===========================================

My current goal/method is the following:

1) Sunday evening, wait for the opening gaps and fill them.

2) I count my gapping profits (£160 on the Sunday 20th Dec session)

3) Then I allow myself 1/3rd of the profits as my risk on stops for the week ahead... If I blow (Which I tend to do) the risk, I will not trade until the Sunday opening session to collect the gaps (if any)

The above is bearing in mind that I am a rookie (6months trading)...

Before realising I was a CONCIOUS INCOMPETENT I blew my account from £550 down to £123... since using my goal and risk I have gone from £123 to £848 in 2months. Its a simple account building goal setting...
  • #3
  • Dec 23, 2009 11:12am Dec 23, 2009 11:12am
I like your rules. I'm not sure what you mean by goal setting but you seem to have some reasonable rules. I don't set goals because some days don't suit my style of trading and I will stay out of the market. This doesn't mean I'm not working. Other days I pile in hard. This is why I don't have goals like "30 pips a week" or whatever. Whenever I see that I know its not a trader.
Gone to a better place
  • #4
  • Dec 23, 2009 11:26am Dec 23, 2009 11:26am
Good thread on setting realistic goals.
I think one of the most important things with goals is to remember to write them down!
It's really easy to have a couple of goals in mind but they get wishy-washy as time rolls on unless it is in black and white.

As a newbie I have set some pretty basic but obtainable goals for myself over the course of 2010.
1. A date to have my system ready.
2. A date to start demo trading said system.
3. A date for opening a brokerage account.
4. A deadline for going live.

And the ultimate goal for 2010 is to stroll into 2011 at BE or better.
  • #5
  • Dec 24, 2009 4:51am Dec 24, 2009 4:51am
Quoting Zombi
Good thread on setting realistic goals.
I think one of the most important things with goals is to remember to write them down!
It's really easy to have a couple of goals in mind but they get wishy-washy as time rolls on unless it is in black and white.

As a newbie I have set some pretty basic but obtainable goals for myself over the course of 2010.
1. A date to have my system ready.
2. A date to start demo trading said system.
3. A date for opening a brokerage account.
4. A deadline for going live.

And the ultimate goal for 2010 is to stroll...

You nailed dude :-) You have to have goals WRITTEN down. If its not writtedn not then its not worth a thing!
  • #6
  • Dec 24, 2009 4:53am Dec 24, 2009 4:53am
Quoting Acedup
Nice read! Why only 4hrs trading? Is that the best time to trade in your opinion?

I will have a plan of your ideas tommorrow afternoon when Im not at work.

===========================================

My current goal/method is the following:

1) Sunday evening, wait for the opening gaps and fill them.

2) I count my gapping profits (£160 on the Sunday 20th Dec session)

[b]3) Then I allow myself 1/3rd of the profits as my risk on stops for the week ahead... If I blow (Which I tend to do) the risk, I will not trade until the...
The reason I have limited my hours to 4 hours of trading is because from my limited experience I found that these 4 hours (Uk time zone) give you enough opportunity on a consistent basis to grow your account by 1%. If you can nail 1% a day you will be a very rich man.
Also by ony trading in the morning there is zero chance of you giving back profits to the market in the afternoon
  • #7
  • Dec 24, 2009 6:27am Dec 24, 2009 6:27am
Quoting tradefxlive
The reason I have limited my hours to 4 hours of trading is because from my limited experience I found that these 4 hours (Uk time zone) give you enough opportunity on a consistent basis to grow your account by 1%. If you can nail 1% a day you will be a very rich man.
Also by ony trading in the morning there is zero chance of you giving back profits to the market in the afternoon
I take it you are scalping?

Nice! 1% a day for a year (minus weekends etc) would turn a £550 account into approx £9,000.

Very interesting and simple target setting.... and potentially quite easy to achieve... lol... given the trade always goes your way however.

How do you deal with any losses?
  • #8
  • Jan 3, 2010 5:16am Jan 3, 2010 5:16am
There are so many definition for scalping.....so this is a tricky one to answer.

I like to think I take positions. So I dont go for 5pip targets. For my trades on the GBPUSD for example I tend to go for 20pips as my first target and then 40-60pips for my second target. I usually risk around 20-30pips on this pair.

Losses - I try to to cut my losses very quickly when I can. but what helps me deal with losses in understanding that each trades is one of the thousands I will place so my 'Edge' over the long run will win over.

Check out my blog tradefxlive co uk
  • #9
  • Jan 3, 2010 5:52am Jan 3, 2010 5:52am
I just felt the need to add something more to this thread.

Even if you set goals, you might succeed at it or otherwise fail. But that doesn't mean if you fail then it's over. No, you'll have to repeat it and try again harder as you've experienced and mostly knew what was the reason for your failure.

Good luck.
  • #10
  • Jan 3, 2010 10:05am Jan 3, 2010 10:05am
hi, i agree with your rules but how if there is no good trade within the 4 hours?
  • #11
  • Jan 3, 2010 3:49pm Jan 3, 2010 3:49pm
Quoting larry.lwt
hi, i agree with your rules but how if there is no good trade within the 4 hours?
Then you'll have to call it a day and find another trading opportunity the next day.
  • #12
  • Jan 4, 2010 7:25am Jan 4, 2010 7:25am
Quoting X Trader
Then you'll have to call it a day and find another trading opportunity the next day.

Spot on. There are 21 (ish) trading days a month. Plenty of days to get at least 10 good setups.
  • #13
  • Jan 5, 2010 9:17am Jan 5, 2010 9:17am
Quoting tradefxlive
With a new year upon us it’s time to take a break and use this time to review and reflect on the year passed. Well this is what i will be doing anyway http://www.tradefxlive.co.uk:/blog/w...icon_smile.gif . There have been many lessons learnt this year, but I think I will blog abouth this at a later date. I think its more importat to know where you are goiing than where you have come from, this being said the need to set Goals is an important exercise.

Without goals it can become difficult to to see the...
People who say they want to earn 1% a day using those rules are violating one of your basic principles of goal setting- Realism. If you are only risking 1% of your account to earn 1% daily, you have to double all the money you put at risk every single day. In order to double in a market where average daily volatility is measured in fractions of a percent, you have to be using an imprudent amount of leverage, and your hit rate would have to be perfect, because your odds of being wiped out with that much leverage are much higher than your odds of winning.

Given all the randomness of the market, I think it's absurd to set daily goals in the first place, let alone extremely optimistic ones like earn 1% a day only risking 1% of your account. It is intoxicating to think you can turn hundreds into thousands and thousands into millions in a couple of years just by earning as little a measly 1% a day, but in reality that is a herculean goal and I think that intoxication is in fact the reason why, as you state, over 90% of traders get wiped out.

To get a realistic goal, maybe analyze standard deviation, risk free rates or benchmark yourself to a hedge fund index. You will probably come up with a goal in the 10-20% a year range. If you made that consistently as a hedge fund professional, you'd be a billionaire. In your personal account you won't make millions but you'll do very nicely for yourself. And even then, you have to accept that you won't always meet your goals.
  • #14
  • Jan 13, 2010 10:31am Jan 13, 2010 10:31am
My personal goal is 10% a month. I honestly think this is attainable providing you have the Discipline to trade the setups your system identifies.

So far this month I am up 4% and still have 12 days of being patient to only trade what my Trading Plan indicates.
  • #15
  • Jan 14, 2010 7:00am Jan 14, 2010 7:00am
What is your winning accuracy or hit rate if I may ask?
  • #16
  • Jan 14, 2010 7:09am Jan 14, 2010 7:09am
Quoting MrGetPips
What is your winning accuracy or hit rate if I may ask?
The last 3 months I have had a hit rate of 65-70%. The average number of trades was 28.
  • #17
  • Jan 14, 2010 8:18am Jan 14, 2010 8:18am
Quoting tradefxlive
With a new year upon us it’s time to take a break and use this time to review and reflect on the year passed. Well this is what i will be doing anyway http://www.tradefxlive.co.uk:/blog/w...icon_smile.gif . There have been many lessons learnt this year, but I think I will blog abouth this at a later date. I think its more importat to know where you are goiing than where you have come from, this being said the need to set Goals is an important exercise.

Without goals it can become difficult to to see the wood from...
2010 ? Only trade automatic !!!!
  • #18
  • Jan 15, 2010 3:46pm Jan 15, 2010 3:46pm
Hey there,

Thanks for the thread. It has really helped me. I have been reading everything and anything about forex trading for about 7 months now. It was only last week that I discovered this website and then your thread! After being bombarded with so much info and learning, I have recently applied your goal setting strategy and it is the best advise I have actually gotten!

I have only applied my new little goal system for 4 days on the demo and it has worked! I am sticking to it!

Many thanks for the heads up!

Hope your sticking to your goals and that they are working out for you.

  • #19
  • Jan 20, 2010 3:37pm Jan 20, 2010 3:37pm
3 simple rules:

  1. Only trade from 6am-10am
  2. No more than 3 trades per day
  3. Only risk 1% of my account size


I trade 15 min charts mostly and find it impossible to get entry on three trades in 4 hours. Are you trading 1 and 5 min charts?

  • #20
  • Jan 24, 2010 10:56am Jan 24, 2010 10:56am
I take entries on 5min charts. I guess it depends on your 'Strategy'.

With my strategy I have enough setups. For this month (15 trading days) I have entered 20 trades

You can see some of my setups on the following page:
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=214574
0 traders viewing now