[evolved trader]

Hey Guys and Gals,

After heeding some advice from Minoo I came to realize my challenge is 100% mental and not edge. I truly believe that if you’re highly analytical it’s not difficult to develop a successful winning edge. To me having an edge is very black and white, although it can take many years to create one, once the basic rules and guildlines are there, it’s very straight forward.

However there are so many moving parts to the human mind. Our brains are pretty much the most advanced pharmaceutical store on the planet. It takes a lot of mental work and repetition to develop our minds to a level where they are in sync with your system, or hence the self sabotage.

So heres my question to you all, Do you focus on a daily profit target or solely trading in line with your edge or both?

By the way, thanks everyone for their input. Every morning I wake up and meditate for an hour before the markets open. During that period I've realized that every morning I’d feel very nervous and overwhelmed about trading. I came to the realization that I had a set monthly target of a dollar figure I was looking to hit. Around $1000- $1500 a day. I’m still trading “1 lot” until I reach a level where I match my systems performance. Basically to perform that I’d have to “squeeze” every ounce of profit out of the day and trade my system to a tee....perfectly. I have done this in the past but not on a consistent basis.

So now what I’m thinking is to set a daily target of $250 a day when I think of that I don’t have the feelings of doubts fears and anxiety. I have a goal to average this daily target for the next 30 days, just to gain the feeling of consistently earning money every day in the markets. Then move it up to $300, $400, $500 ect.

Does anyone think this is too limiting and I’d be training my brain to take profits too early as my technical targets would have not been reached or is it a good idea to get myself used to consistently earning revenue? Or is it better just to focus on trading my system and let the profits be the by product?

Thank all for the input,
Ryan

[Minis Trader]

For me the first thing to keep in mind when I set my daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals is that you need to have something to shoot for. But most importantlly is the goal needs to be realistic. To have a goal of 1 million dollars a day with a 50k account is pie in the sky (At least it is for me).

If you set a goal of $250 per day and you start reaching it on a consistany basis you are then able to move your goal up to $400 per day. Then $1,000 per day and so on.

By having a smaller goal set as you get started you will be able to focus only on setups that meet the rules of your system and you will start to build belief in your signals.

To me a goal is a starting point but goals should not be stagnant they need to be dynamic.

Remember this "A goal not written down is nothing more than an idea", write it down and review it daily.

[evolved trader]

Hi Minis Trader,

Great points. I do review my goals daily and find that most beneficial to keep everything fresh on my RAS (reticular activation system).

By having a smaller goal set as you get started you will be able to focus only on setups that meet the rules of your system and you will start to build belief in your signals.

You just have me an awesome idea. I have a struggle with thinking I’m limiting myself and my system by lowering my goals to $250 a day. But, one of the area I am in the process of overcoming is to enter the markets on time off a valid signal from my system. Starting Monday I’ll enter the markets with valid entry reasons and then just immediately follow up (with a stop) and a limit order at a prices target of $250. And if the trade rides through to my actual system target then I can take profits on paper for now. At least this way I can train my brain first to get comfortable entering in on time.

My friend you are brilliant.

Thanks a ton!
Ryan

[suriNotes]

Hi evolved trader,

See if this article I posted may be helpful in your quest...
Specially see TradePlanner calculator link in the article.

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...hart-4448.html

Regards,
Suri

Originally Posted by evolved trader »

Hey Guys and Gals,


By the way, thanks everyone for their input. Every morning I wake up and meditate for an hour before the markets open. During that period I've realized that every morning I’d feel very nervous and overwhelmed about trading. I came to the realization that I had a set monthly target of a dollar figure I was looking to hit. Around $1000- $1500 a day. I’m still trading “1 lot” until I reach a level where I match my systems performance. Basically to perform that I’d have to “squeeze” every ounce of profit out of the day and trade my system to a tee....perfectly. I have done this in the past but not on a consistent basis.

So now what I’m thinking is to set a daily target of $250 a day when I think of that I don’t have the feelings of doubts fears and anxiety. I have a goal to average this daily target for the next 30 days, just to gain the feeling of consistently earning money every day in the markets. Then move it up to $300, $400, $500 ect.


Thank all for the input,
Ryan

[fifty2aces]

Unless you take a lot of trades every day, it might be better to set your goals over a longer timeframe (e.g. a week or a month). If you only take a couple trades a day, you'll probably have regular days where you miss your target, purely due to small sample size/bad luck. Aiming to be profitable over a larger number of trades will hopefully prevent you getting too attached to short term results which are heavily influenced by variance.

[Minis Trader]

Originally Posted by evolved trader »

Hi Minis Trader,

Great points. I do review my goals daily and find that most beneficial to keep everything fresh on my RAS (reticular activation system).

By having a smaller goal set as you get started you will be able to focus only on setups that meet the rules of your system and you will start to build belief in your signals.

You just have me an awesome idea. I have a struggle with thinking I’m limiting myself and my system by lowering my goals to $250 a day. But, one of the area I am in the process of overcoming is to enter the markets on time off a valid signal from my system. Starting Monday I’ll enter the markets with valid entry reasons and then just immediately follow up (with a stop) and a limit order at a prices target of $250. And if the trade rides through to my actual system target then I can take profits on paper for now. At least this way I can train my brain first to get comfortable entering in on time.

My friend you are brilliant.

Thanks a ton!
Ryan

Glad to hear that it will help, let me know how it goes.

[BlowFish]

There is an argument against fixed money daily goals and that is you can only take what the market is offering. Would it not be a better goal to take all the trades presented and manage them properly during the hours you trade? Knowing when to press it and when to ease off can improve results.


Having said that having a good general understanding of what you might expect (points wise) over the period that you focus on can help alert you if things are OK or going wrong.

[evolved trader]

Suri
Great in-depth article. I’ll take a look over and heed some of your suggestions. Thanks for sharing.

Fifty2aces

Excellent points. I do stick to a 20 sample sizes of trades and don’t re-evaluate things until the week is over. I’ll still use the sample sizes but also use the dollar figure as a target because it is very tangible.

BlowFish

Great point also. That’s where my conflict exists. Because I define successful trading as properly executing my system and allowing the profits to be the by-product. That’s why I was curious if you guys had daily dollar targets set. Suri’s article gives great points how to evaluate that.

Thanks everyone for their advice,
Ryan