A year of Progress (goals?)

I think it is very important to have goals and well I want to start a topic to stir up some ideas of goals I should have for my particular situation. Perhaps I should explain my particular situation? I am fourtaint enough to have a loving and supporting family that is giving me the opportunity to really explore forex. I am able to dedicate the whole year of 2007 to forex. However, I am limiting myself to a 9 hour day on forex. Also, I have a limited capital. I will be starting with 10,000 in capital. So that is my situation and limitations. I will be trading the New York session and I live on the west coast :confused:

So anyways, I got to thinking. If I do a full year of trading. A full year of 9 hour days of trading and learning and trading and learning where will I go? Where am I know and where will I be a year from now? Really I have no idea, and honestly I probably can not imagine how this next year will turn out. However, I want to attempt to make some goals. And I want to see if I can bounce ideas off this community and see if people think my goals are reasonable.

My first goal will be to master my trading style. By trading style I mean my trading method and everything associated with it. By master I mean being profitable and cutting my losses to the most minimalist. I want to do this all within the first 6 months. So basically I think given 6 month of time that I will be able to master (realize when I say master I truly mean just the ability to be profitable) my trading style.

My second goal will be to make 100 pips a week on EUR. I am not sure what type of time table this should be on. But I think within the first 5 months I should be there. So I figure ill be demoing for 3-4 months and by then I should be profiting on the demo my goal and then I will take another month or so to practice that for real. However, I acknowledge the differences in demoing and live trading and thus give myself a 1-2 month period of working out emotional struggles within myself so that I can become profitable as I did in the demo. So I suppose my goal is to make 100 pips a week on Eur on the demo within the first 3 months. Then be able to transition that success over to live trading within a 1-2 month(s).

Obviously I have a lot more goals, but for now I will just introduce those two and see what you guys have to say about them. I would appreciate all and any comments regarding this post. I thank you in advance for any input!

I sincerely agree with you that goals and objectives are important. But i’ve said it before on this forum that i think setting these kind rigid profit goals is a good way to quickly discourage yourself when they are not met. It is fine to set these goals but you need to account for the times when you do not achieve it. Notice i said WHEN and not IF. You will have losing weeks…every single trader on the face of this earth has had losing weeks. It would be unrealistic for youto believe otherwise. How will you feel? How will you approach trading after the losing weeks? Is 100 pips/week an average or a fixed goal you set for yourself every week? If it is an average, over how much time do you give that average time to play itself out?

So, my only critique is really to ensure that you are accounting for the rough periods your system, like any other, will sustain. That being said, what kind of drawdown can you stomach? These are things you must know and include in your objectives

hey there.
merry x-mas and happy chanuka!

I would just like to say that by setting goals to yourself you prove us (and yourself) that you really ARE taking forex as a business and not a “hobby”.
an amature hopes for the best, a pro sets goals.

now, about the goals - the answer you [U]should[/U] hear is “each one has his\her own pace”, “it changes individually” and so on. but we both know that’s not an answer to satisfy you, so I’ll tell you my [U]opinion[/U] (and mine alone).
I think, that even if you’re pretty new, your goal is reasonable considering the fact you dedicate 9 hours of your day to forex education. that should be… around 700 hours of education (if you really are comitted). thus, you shall reach the reasonable goals you’ve set for yourself. I’m also assuming that you WILL use the entire 9 hours, meaning you’ll do a lot of reading, because it doesn’t take 9 hours to just execute orders on a demo account.

I also agree with pipbull, you can’t win them all. and you will have losing weeks. just make sure you can stand the hit when they come.

well, that’s about it.
goodluck!
…oh, and keep us posted!

Regards.

When it comes to draw down I only want 10% max draw down. So that is 10 bad trades in a row. I have already have had several weeks were I do not meet my 100 pip goal and I am perfectly ok with that. As I get better and better I believe my gains will grow and thus I will be able to increase my goals. Another Kolachi trader has worked his way up to roughly 300 pips a week. He started slow but gained speed and I suppose that is what I hope for. I guess my goal is that I will be able to consistently achieve 100 pips a week and have few losing weeks.

I do understand your concerns pipbull, but I am just not going to beat myself up if I make anything less then 100 pips. However, I may get discourage when I have a losing week. Hopefully though I will get good enough that a losing week will consist of several trades that resulted in +1 pip.

So I guess another goal I have is to have few losing trades. I think most of the time my trades won’t loss profit. However, I think there is a lot of potential for me to get stopped out of a trade. Ie, I move stop loss to +1 pip when price is 10+spread and then I get stopped out. So by using this type of strategy I think my system will have few losing trades. However, I guess the real test will be when 2007 roles along and I actually sit down and start my trading.

So this brings me up to another question. If you can consistently pull in some net result how long of reproducing that result do you think you have it set in stone. So for example say I produce 100 pips a week on EUR for 12 weeks give or take a bad week or so, do you think I can continue to reproduce those results over a longer period of time?

Thank you for your responses. Really Pipbull I thank you a lot. You raise important question that I really do not have an answer to. I have yet to see how I will react to a losing week. And then it will be even something else to see how I react to a losing week when it isn’t on a demo. No matter what though I think I won’t be discourage if I can not meet my goals so long as I am approaching my goals.

Thanks a bunch,
–Nate

Also,

Another thing I am concerned about is resources. I have been trying to pull together as many forex resources as possible in the next week or two. Because if I am really committed to forex I think I will burn through most of my resources within the first week. So can anyone recommend any forex learning materials I should check into.

As of now I have these resources lined up:
Trade your Way to Financial Freedom
Trading in the Zone

I plan to re-read those resources a few times during my first week of study. But where from there? More books? Articles about technical indicators?

If you haven’t already read those first two resources then i suggest you hurry up and read them :slight_smile:

In my opinion, those are 2 of the best books in the trading world. They really do a great job in setting the record straight in terms of what it takes to succeed, not only in terms of systems but also in terms of proper mind-set. Please do read them.

I would also recommend Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards by Jack Scwager.

Reading about technical indicators is always good but it is not what is going to make you a success. You need to understand them because systems are largely based on them, but focus on those first 2 books you mentioned.

I have read Trading in the Zone once already. Think I started the book by Tharp but didn’t finished. So I will pick that one up and probably re-read Trading in the Zone. I have ordered the wizard books things. Pipbull do you recommend any other readings? Really want to stock up on readings so I have study materials.

Hmmm i think that i can help a bit with books.I have 1,5GB books courses lection and other materials for Trading , markets and Forex.More than half are on English and rest is on Russian. i can share all that i have just contact me at my MSN.
About goals … hmmm let me tell you a storey from my sport expirience …
When new guy come to a gym and try bench press usual he can’t push a 50kg.First that guy think is :

week 1 - “OMG i’m so dam weak look at the guy next to me who push 100kg bench”

3 weeks after … he push 60 kg what he is think “OMG i get better and better what a proggress !!! look at the same guy next to me he push again 100 kg i’m gonna chach him for no time!!! I’m gonna read all about sport!!! I will know everything about it and will beat that guy cause i learn so fast i have internet i have magazines i have books!!!”

10 weeks after … he push 65 kg “OMG why the heck i’m not push 80 kg i start so well first 3 weeks and then i stop … and guy next to me push 105 kg he is still so slow i’m gonna chach him anyway just need to push harder” and he start to push harder and harder and his body get overtrained.

6 monts later … he push 60kg “OMG i push even harder that a begining and i get even worst … somthing is wrong and guy next to me push 107,5 kg” (Aha the guy begin to open his eyes)

10 monts later … he push 67,5 kg here is the key- there 2 ways that could take

  • he just give up and stop think (this thing is stuped and not for me)
  • or he think that way :(I think that i need to be constant and when my body is ready to pass next lvl it will pass, just i need more time and to be patient … ahhh and guy next to me push 110k … lol i have same proggress as he did for 1 year but he is trainning few years more than me).

This storey is real and it have of course sience explanation wich rerquire years of learning and studing that i dont intend to bother you here is trading forum not sports one :slight_smile: . But by me there is not way to compress years to monts … exept teleportation.

Implement my storey to your trading plans and you will get my point .
No matter how hard you push somthing neither your body or your mind, there is natural way of evolution … be a realistic make a realistic goals to yourself dont push yourself too hard and dont get lazy. Be patient and constant and soon or later you will get those 100kg passed (or 100 pips) Not for 1 year as you think at begining but you still reach your goal.

All that i say is my personal opinion of course. I’m as new to Forex as you.

Best reagrds

Vladimir.
P.S. English is not my mother language :slight_smile:

Good point dvzer,

I will try to avoid over training and to take the slow but steady approach to my Forex trading. Thank you for your story and I am sure even if your story is about physical training that the lesson probably still caries over to forex trading!
Thanks

I think I fell into that over training trap since I have read over a dozen books the last year without ever trading on a demo :frowning: . Now I am trying to put it all together. Can you say info overload :). Good Luck with your goals Swordofrue. I will set some goals eventually but for now I just want to become consistent on a demo/game which is tough enough to do. One month everything is great and the next month the some country’s fundamental analysis blows my technical trading strategy out of the water. I think I will just keep reading the blogs and learning how all of a country’s reports can affect my trading before ever going live since I am in no rush to succeed.

Yeah I am very fearful on how the fundamental part of trading will effect my success in forex. It is by far what I know least. Hopefully my system accounts for violaite and hopefully I just won’t get into the great whipsaws of the news! Thanks for all your help topgun and I wish for your success. I am in kind of a rush lol. I have a year to make something happen ^^;

dzver, please leave your msn here or add me!

Yeah I am very fearful on how the fundamental part of trading will effect my success in forex. It is by far what I know least.
Yup, thats my weakest link in my treading also, more than that, i cant say that im so good with the techs either, but fundamentals is a deep dark hole for me!:slight_smile:

I’ve read nothing but good stuff so far. I’d just like to add my two pips.

When just starting, forget about setting pip goals.

[B]Focus on the process, not on profits. [/B]

Create or learn a system. Focus on being disciplined and following that system. Keep a trading log. Constantly review it. After some time, you’ll figure out what to do next.

May I ask you what you mean by a trading log? In my vision a trading log consists of your trades, entry price, exit price, and perhaps a quick note about mistakes… Also thinking, maybe pictures.