What Is A Reasonable Daily Target?

If I have $1000 as my capital, and I trade only Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for at least 6 hours a day, is 50~60 pips per day a reasonable target?

What's a suitable system for achieving my targets as mentioned?

What's your daily target, your trading days and your trading hours?

I don't have any targets like you describe. I usually set small trades on intraday charts where I like the daily or weekly set up. I usually have a take profit figure for a portion of the trade and if at all possible I let the other portion run with the stop loss moved to break even or in a little profit. That way I am not forcing through dodgy trades to meet targets. With good money management my account will meet the targets which match my ability.

I have a few strategies so I am usually waiting for a set up or managing trades. I keep busy. When things are slow, like NFP week, I usually test my strategies and refine them using back testing but I find I have to force myself to do it more recently. It's a shame because I used to get a kick out of strategy testing for hours on end. I trade from 6am to 7pm GMT, with long breaks. I don't scalp, as such, but I might be keeping an eye on the M15 chart for price action around daily and weekly S/R levels.

Most of the systems described here in Forex Factory work well. I would choose the simplest really. Trading experience counts for a lot when using any strategy. What time of day will you be trading, in relation to the London open and the New York open?

I personally have no daily targets at all, and my advice to you would be to scrap the idea of daily targets and take a longer term approach.

Firstly I think daily targets are unrealistic (no matter how small) and also dangerous. What happens if you don't reach your target and you have 1 hour of your trading day left? Do you force trades and enter indiscriminately just to try and reach your target? What if you miss your target for the day? Do you then double up on day two and so on?

I also don't work in pips to measure targets or success over a given period. If you look around the forum, you will see that it's actually possible to be up on pips, but in a loss with money. My targets are always done longer term and as a percentage of my account. I generally work on profits or losses per quarter (every 3 months), and gauge it in % change compared to the previous quarter.

If you're new and thinking about what would be a good gain of profits over a year, try looking at it this way:

Imagine you leave your $1000 in a bank to gain interest. What % would you get over the course of a year. In the current climate, could you find anything offering 2.5% annual return? Ok, so what if your forex trading could give you 10% or 20%? Compare that to your bank savings and the increase is pretty spectacular. It may not seem much compared to some claims you may have seen knocking about regarding forex, but if a bank offered you 20% instead of 2.5% would you be happy?

Remember, if you're starting small, your profits will be small, but as you gain more and more capital, your profits get bigger. 20% on a $1000 account is only $200, but the same 20% on a $1,000,000 account is $200,000. Keep it in perspective.

Rather than a daily pip or dollar amount as a target, the best thing would be to set realistic targets.

As for my trading times.....I check the charts every day, and often several times a day, but I rarely trade every day. Sometimes I may go a week or two without trading. It depends on what I see. Try not to be in a hurry to trade every minute of every day. I suppose it really depends on what time frame you feel comfortable with and what you want out of this. I personally like higher time frames because it means less chart watching and less work and more time for fun. But there are others who would be bored out of their head trading the way I do, and they need the rush of watching each minute on a chart. Find what you enjoy best, and what you are best at (where do you make most money with the least stress?)

Depends on what time frame you trade.

Are your targets contributing to your success or to your downfall?

I have attempted to address this issue in the following post.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...7&postcount=18

All the best.

For me, by setting a target might unconsciously creating pressure to myself. When you can't meet your target within the timeframe, you might end up entering a trade which you hav no full confidence hopefully to earn more to meet your target, but end up losing the trade. So I rather not to set any target for myself. Anyway, I am still new in forex and this might not true to others.

The posts by Flotsom, Smikester and Hedginghog are all excellent, IMO. Don't set targets. Instead, focus on finding (or developing) a real edge, and executing the resulting strategy consistently; and be content with whatever the market is willing to give you. The harsh reality is this: without an edge, you will ultimately join the vast majority of would-be traders who lose, making targets meaningless. Conversely, if you have an edge, and manage risk, profits will come as a matter of course.

Also, the number of pips is much less important than risk-adjusted return.

I totally agree with flotsom.

You should not have a target profit as this may pressurize you into entering trades everyday just to achieve that target. You may find yourself entering trades that is not according to your trading plan and this is usually the key reason most traders fail in this area.

I understand that you may find trading unsecure as you may have days whereby you will not make any money or even lost money.

However if you have a good risk reward ratio, this problem can be solved.

Good Luck!