Well, I’m not sure i’d ever want to attach a hard profit goal to my trading. Although i agree that setting goals are crucial, they do not have to be set in stone. I personally find it a little dangerous to set too many daily, weekly or monthly profit goals. What if the market does not want to offer that to you at any given time? What if you decide to trade for a living and decide you need X amount of profit to live off, then X amount more to give your account potential for growth? Let’s say the total X value is 5% per month. The danger with setting these kinds of goals for yourself is that as the end of the month approaches and you realize you may not achieve it or may not be able to pay your bill unless you make the profit, then you might also start to force your trades. You might mistime your trades, get impatient, start to overtrade, etc, etc…
Don’t get me wrong here folks. We all need to establish some kind of reasonable expectation of profit, otherwise what are we all doing. But those expectations need to be flexible, perhaps a profit range, based on more of an average over an extended period of time, rather than a rigid month-by-month basis.
Since i hold a job and don’t have anywhere near the kind of trading capital that is needed to trade for a living, i don’t stress out over a fixed profit goal. Instead i think it is much more constructive to have a goal of consistency…consistency in following your rules to the letter. If i am profitable at the end of the month, then i am happy…even if it is only 20 pips. The question i ask myself is did i follow my plan, did i trade my plan? Is this distribution of wins to losses this month fit the statistical norm based on backtesting (it is normal from time to time to have sustain 5 losses in a row even with a 65% accurate system)? If i can honestly answer yes then i have achived my goal and i press on. I’m at the point where my goals are more internally directed (discipline, consistency) and not externally directed (set profit targets). I have long come to realize that the second you expect something from the market, that is the very moment the market will bite you in the ass and discourage you from following an otherwise completely sound approach to trading.
I think you make some excellent points pipbull. We all have our own personalities and specific goals work for our particular personalities. Personally I think consistency is a good goal to have but I need more. I thrive more when I have fixed goals, when I have a quota to meet I work harder. Usually adds unnecessary pressure and stress, but usually that pressure works out to my advantage. So really it is just a matter of having goals that fit your personality.
You make valid points and I just want to point out that goal setting is a personal decision that we all have to make. All I am saying is that a 400 pips a month on EURvsUSD is a good goal for me that will push me to the next level and that will raise me up and above my expectations. However, that should not effect anyone else’s goal setting.
:o Well well I thought FOREX could get much more than 10% consistantly i a month.I am earning 10 - 30 % montly currently for fix period of 15 months.
I expected to earn 200usd a day on forex. Can I pls comment N advise.
A good modest goal that we should all have! Personally I take it one step further and say, I do not want a losing trade! I do this by moving stop loss to +1 pip when the price is 10+spread in my favor.
Please do re read the last chapter of babypips FX school under " Leverage the Killer". If you do use up your laverage money 100%, you will be ‘slaughtered’ pretty soon. Well, not you, -as the teacher said -, but your account will.
I usually move my stop to breakeven when I’m up as much as I risked. The thing that bothers me is that a lot of times the trade reverses and I breakeven instead of taking a modest 15 - 20 pip gain :mad: This is the reason why I am [I][B]considering[/B][/I] scalping those 15pips instead of waiting for the 30-80 pip trade.
Well do you trade multi lots? If so you can cash out some profit and let a few lots run that way if it does reverse back and hit b/e you got something to show for it. But if it does go up to your other target profits then what you know you won’t be kicking yourself because you cashed out at a lower target profit! Just a suggestion, what do you think?
I haven’t done that yet since I am still demo trading but it is definately something I should start doing to see how I do. I have been looking back on my old trades and thinking of ways to improve and that is one of them. I guess would have to split my normal lot size in half to keep the risk the same and when I cashed out one lot I would be trading at half the pip value on the other lot but it’s still better than breakeven like you said.
If you get 10% a month, consistantly. You can set it for a living.
Many traders have net losses, so at least you are winning.
You want to make much more than 10% Resolution is:
Increase your initial capital
Change your risk reward system (But make sure your system still works for new settings)
Or trade bigger lot size ( I do not recommend this. Try not to risk more than 1% of your account in a trade)
You excepted around 200USD a day
Can you tell me what is the initial capital? Try to avoid putting pressure on your lot size to increase profit, this will increase losses.
The valid solution is increasing your capital to increase Profit, given you didn’t change your system rules.
shalom my brother my family lives in dimona isreal.i currently live in America Atlanta ga. i’'m also at the beginning stage of trading.I’ve been through the entire babypips school.now I need a crash course to get started.
I agree that the focus should be Dollar profit not pips… but in my humble opinion, not right from the outset. First, the chances that you are going to make money as a novice trader (assuming you are a beginner) with perhaps ur first second third even fourth live micro account (if ever) is almost none to zero. Your knowledge base and experience is simply nowhere near enough to be consistently profitable at the very beginning of ur trading career - unless of course u have the luxury of a mentor/pro with whom u can consult and advises you on ur trades on a regular basis. Most of us don’t.
Now from my limited experience I I have found the Pip count to be the most effective and simplest way in which to measure my performance. BUT with one proviso: Your lot sizes must remain the same over a stipulated period, otherwise your pip count would essentially be rendered meaningless.
My focus at present is purely to get the basics absolutely right viz. Risk and money management, Reward to Risk ratios, discipline,trading psychology etc…So not unlike a science experiment I’m keeping one variable constant i.e Lot sizes and subsequently- at a glance - I can evaluate my performance purely in terms of pip P//L. If my pip count is positive I know I’m making money; negative, I’m Losing money.
Also from my pip count I can easily determine with which currency pairs and at which times of the day I have a higher success rate. Potentially vital info as your trading strategy may be better suited to certain currency pairs and to certain trading sessions.
That said I will indeed focus on the $$$ in not too distant future, in which case I can end up with a negative pip count but still make a dollar profit. In other words pip count would become irrelevant. I’ll arrive at this point I believe only once I’ve developed a greater skill set over time and with a lil more experience.
2% or more, consistently, is fine by me. The point is consistency, which increases your trading account fund, and profitability. Good luck and good trading to all of you out there!
if you aiming higher pips. it’s quite hard. because market have average movement for the day.
if you rate return with the capital you put it. it’s kinda possible but it’s boils down with your emotion. scalping is quite emotion consuming but it’s kinda worth it for me.
if you are 3% a month. I will respect that. but it’s kinda slow poke for me. >.<
Wow dude if i put my money in the bank it gives me more.Atleast have some pride, when trading, 2% is just rubbish.My goal would be atleast, ATLEAST 15%/month.Anything over that is fine but 15 is the minimum.
personally i think actually aiming for a number is a bad idea it might lead you to put in trades that arent really a good idea just because you need to reach the quotum.
Id say … as many as possible
as accountant, we need the number (rate of return) because it measures the reward and risk associated with the trading. why venture trading if you’re unprofitable right? it takes time to learn the trading but it’s worth if you come up concepts to win the market. trading offer greater reward than classic deposit rates because you handle the market risk premium.
