Not trying to tell you how to suck eggs but I believe You will trade much better without the pressure of this deadline you have created for yourself. You have made it much harder by adding this psychological line in the sand. It is meaningless. If you are able to consistently achieve only 10% of your target every month you would be able to get well paid work with any hedge fund Likewise private investors would be very keen for your services. The average return from these expert managers is a paltry 3.7% per year! and most people are relying on them...
I actually thought someone would post a comment about that when I posted my previous post. I completely understand what you mean and although I have these targets...I do not let my targets affect my trading, trading your P&L instead of trading what your charts tell you has a negative affect on you results as you say. i've been through this pahse in my learning curve and it had a really bad affect on my trading results as can be expected as you obviously cut your winners short when you've made what you consider a decent dollar amount instead of trading your exit plan according to what your charts are telling you.
The reason I have a 6 month target is that this will give me enough to pay for the next 12-18 months living costs and leave me enough to trade for the enxt 12 months where my required returns in order to do it again for the next 12 months would be circa 20-30% per month. I have limited time and living funds hence the 6 months etc. Plus, this style of trading something that I dont think I could do over the long term...it can be quite stressful at times and I see it as an intense 6 months after which I can take it easier and trade less. I hope that kind of makes sense.
Obviously if career opportunuties or alternative options present themselves then that's a good option to have, though I'd never conisdered that to be honest just that I want to make enough to be able to trade full time without the need for a job ever again etc.
