Your Daily Pip Goal?

If you have one what is it? And has this been a realistic goal in hindsight?

No daily. Weekly and Monthly.

my target is whatever the market gives, am happy with anything positive...and in hindsight it has been realistic but still needs a lot of self-work to improve upon

It depends on time of day and pair i am trading. I usually let the market create my exits alowing them to favor my direction.
In regards to daily pip goal... I base my trading in terms of months/years it would have to be an average of my yearly Pip gain.

The reason I ask is that I have been having issues with making a large profit on a trade, then I keep it open looking for more upside using this large positive on the trade as a cushion. Then the market goes against me and turns the trade negative and I close. After closing the market usually goes back toward the way I was trading and then some.

So I am not exiting soon enough or too soon depending how you look at it. Im wondering if a pip goal would help me.

Having a daily goal is counter productive. Like the above posters have said, you can't predict what the market is going to give you.
I've had periods of doing more than 20 trades per day, even then, a daily goal leads to problems....

What if you've reached it halfway through the day? Are you going to ignore good signals for the rest of the day? (potentially hurting your long term profits)

What if you haven't reached it with 1 hour left of trading for your session?
Are you going to push and take trades you normally wouldn't take?

Over time and at least hundreds of trades, you will have an idea of what your systems/methods produce for you on average.
But...

I no longer include a goal for the day in any kind of description of my methods....

Dialist said it right, years ago on this forum....

"Individual trades are essentially meaningless. It is only a series of trades placed by consistently following the rules of your system that has any significant meaning. "

Edit:
Just read your reply above, it's hard to say without knowing your time frames, win%, and risk:reward.

The volatility is very high lately, things are always changing. If you are trading on a longer timeframe, maybe a three part exit based upon your own design.

take 1/3 off at some small profit
take next 1/3 off at 2-3 times that.
finally, hold the last 1/3 for big wins?

It really depends on your methods individually, taking partial profits lowers your return in the long run, but it also lowers your risk in regards to fluctuations.

I agree with this. A set daily pip amount will apply pressure and increase odds of making a bad trade (or becoming complacent). You have a system and you trade it whenever you can, whether once a day or ten times a day.

None. I don't have goals, other than to achieve a return that satisfies me. Performance will vary significantly year to year, so a daily goal would be even more pointless. I can also only make what I make, and no goal will change that.

I remember having this same discussion many years ago. It involved an aggressive young buck who always had a desire to feed his ego. If only he made X each week, he'd be satisfied with life. Of course, it was a fallacy and I told him so at the time.

What he is up to these days I have no idea. I was interested though, and not at all surprised, to learn he had gone into car sales a few years ago. He failed at trading because he tried to dictate to the market. I'd imagine he was better suited to being a car salesman, aiming to make X commission each week.

just imagine Tiger Woods going to the contest without the championship in his mind,

no but imagine more he is practicing for this contest without the cahmp. goal in his mind !

another example, imagine yourself drive your car in a road without target to reach!! and without road signs that tells you how much you'r far from your target!!

funny? you drive and say to yourself I accept anything from my driving and from my car, and the road


Goal setting for short, long or daytrading is very important man, and measuring your performance toward your goal is more important

and this goal must be set by you based on your past and on your capital ..
and believe me, the most satisfaction feeling in your life is when you reach your goals specially in this career

the topic killed everywhere around the web, here is some discussions about::

> The Value of Keeping Score Religiously
> Reflections on Life, Motivation, and Impotent Goals
> Goal-Setting, Discipline, and the Emotions of Traders
> GOALS ACHIEVED
> Michael Jordan on Goals settings

I think you are perhaps confusing goal setting with expecting the market to bend to your will.

Goals in trading should, in my opinion, be based more around such things as:

* I will only trade when my mindset is correct.

* I will trade what I see - not what I want to happen.

* I will follow my plan.

* I will review my day's work after it is over.

I could go on and on but the point I am making is that nowhere in a huge list of goals should it say "I will make X pips this week/month/year"

Used car salesman classic line: "That's not oil dripping from the engine. That's sweat from all the horsepower!"

another example

I go out and plan for a trip

so the goals based in Your opion are like:

* I will wash my car
* I will fuel it with gas
* I will not forget my licience
* I will drive at 90 Km/H
* I will not forget my fav. CD set
* ...

I can go on too

but

I havnt set the most important thing

Where the F***K I'm willing to go?

if you didn't set your trading goal for a given period and didn't take this goal in consideration while reviewing your journal

then how you will know you weakness points, how you know what working for you and keep doing it and what isn't working to neglect it?!!
what's your emotions with this pattern and how your exits in that and how you plan for this, why I'm sizing this time like that and is it good to size out or it's easier when not, all this with the goal in front of you

you will be moving in a circle without end, win lose, win lose win win lose lose lose, ..

you make it hard for yourself and think it's calm and easy when you trade without target !!

man, read the pages I posted in the prior post before reply, put your ego a side and read before posting ...

I can fill big thread in this topic but it's silly because this title killed everywhere and I dont see the purpose from repeating the same words
(with the same measures ..)

I find success in this business very rewarding. Not only from a financial standpoint, but from a sense of accomplishment. We all know the stat: ~90% fail. I hope after many years I can look back and say I succeeded in what I wanted to get from the market. It is very competitive man. I don't know how things will turn out in the end for me, but everyday I feel better about my chances. It is a trend I will try to follow.

I'm not sure I need to 'put my ego aside' and read the links you provide in order to provide you with a reply.

Ultimately I don't much care that we disagree and I'm afraid no amount of you providing links or vehements arguments with exclamation marks will change my mind. What I said is still valid (for me) and it's based upon a great number of years of experience. It is clearly not valid for you and that is perfectly fine and understandable.

The reason I made the original point is that I worry that new traders get too bogged down with targets for capturing pips. I am in no way stating that goals are invalid and, naturally, being profitable and protecting your capital are both goals that ensure survival in an individual's trading career.

I cannot disagree with the importance of goal setting, as I have said already, but I still maintain that having a pip target will do more harm than good to most traders. There are some exceptions, I accept. I once had a guy who traded for me and his personality was such that he performed best when given the pressure of targets. Even they would be based upon growing the account by X% though. How he achieved that growth was down to him and I couldn't care less how many pips he captured in the process.







quote=benssol;3756334]another example

I go out and plan for a trip

so the goals based in Your opion are like:

* I will wash my car
* I will fuel it with gas
* I will not forget my licience
* I will drive at 90 Km/H
* I will not forget my fav. CD set
* ...

I can go on too

but

I havnt set the most important thing

Where the F***K I'm willing to go?

if you didn't set your trading goal for a given period and didn't take this goal in consideration while reviewing your journal

then how you will know you weakness points, how you know what working for you and keep doing it and what isn't working to neglect it?!!
what's your emotions with this pattern and how your exits in that and how you plan for this, why I'm sizing this time like that and is it good to size out or it's easier when not, all this with the goal in front of you

you will be moving in a circle without end, win lose, win lose win win lose lose lose, ..

you make it hard for yourself and think it's calm and easy when you trade without target !!

man, read the pages I posted in the prior post before reply, put your ego a side and read before posting ...

I can fill big thread in this topic but it's silly because this title killed everywhere and I dont see the purpose from repeating the same words
(with the same measures ..)[/quote]

If you are more after pips than profit, consider trading x/HKD and x/MNP and 1000+ pips daily is very realistic goal.

I don't have any goal, daily, weekly or monthly, it would put me under pressure. I'm very picky about trades, there are days I don't see perfect entry on my chart, 0 pips. Some weeks are also too messy or ranging, I don't need that "I must stick to my plan and goal" sh*t, it isn't always the right thing to stick with. Being flexible and dynamic might help more.

I would assume it is a lot like poker and you just sort of have to take what you're given.

If you hit your daily pip goal early you're perhaps leaving profit on the table.

If you try to force it then you are probably not in the best mindset.

That's not equivalent to a daily goal, but to a trader having the intention of profiting on a trade they make. We all make a trade with the intention of profiting. The equivalent to having a daily goal in trading would be Tiger intending to finish in say the top 5 each tournament. He can achieve this by skill alone. A trader can't, because chance is a factor.


I don't need artificial goals, just the natural ones in this activity: shorterm to make good trades, and longterm to profit significantly as a product of those good trades. I just find shorterm goals that are so strongly at the mercy of chance to be silly. I would separate those kind of goals from milestones, such as hitting 1 million on the account, as that will almost certainly have a psychological effect.

For what it's worth, here is my take on this issue

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

IMO, pip goals or % profit a day is a bad way to go about trading... in fact... horrible.

Like many have stated, and I fully agree, it will cause more harm then good. It will cause your emotions to take over for not reaching your goal and cause you to take trades outside of your rules because you feel pressured to accomplish that pip/% goal. bad idea....

you don't know what the market is going to do. A reason I don't believe in TP's. I just take what it gives.

I think it's ok to have a certain amount of pips that you are happy with for the day, when you know you can hang it up and go live life... has to be a balance. But I wouldn't like to call this a GOAL, as in, having to reach it or I failed for the day.