Trading Goals, Do You Have Them?

June 11, 2022 Stan

Do you know what you are really looking to achieve when trading? Did you set some goals to work toward? Do you know why you want to achieve the goal set? Do you know what is needed so you have a chance at achieving you goals? If you do not have goals and a plan on how to achieve what you want then you are like a sailboat without a rudder in the ocean, you will just drift away in the direction the winds and currents will take you. You have no control! Setting goals is an important step in achieving the things you want in life. Sure you can achieve things without setting goals and creating a plan many have, however by setting goals and having a plan to work, you become more focused and more self-conscious at details to help accelerate your progress.

We can break down goals into all different categories such as personal health and fitness, spiritual, family and relationships, career, education, investments and financial to name a few. Within each category we choose to create goals you should create sub-categories. So for the financial goals one of the sub categories would be trading goals. Now as a general statement, all that decide they want to become a trader want to make money. That is a statement made to oneself, but not necessary a goal as I never met anybody who decided to become a trader to lose money. So what are goals and how is the proper way to create them in order to achieve them?

All wants in life come from dreams, desires and needs. From these dreams, desires and needs goals are created. The process starts with creating a list of dreams without allowing your mind to put limits on those dreams. Do not allow your current situation or current condition to limit your thoughts of your dreams. Create your dream list, as there are no obstacles. After you have created a dream list, the next process to do is review your dream list and review each item and see if it is a realistic dream, desire or need within your current conditions in your life. If a dream was to live in a two million dollar home on the ocean off the Florida coast and your current job was earning you $25000.00 per year and you had very little savings, that dream would not be a realistic dream under current conditions in your life.

Now if you willing to make a drastic change to a profession which would give you higher earnings or you find a way to make your savings work better for you by becoming an astute investor or a trader you will have a more realistic chance at achieving your dreams and goals. The key is making sure the dreams and goals are realistic and believable to you. Some goals you create will be easy to obtain while other more significant goals need to be a challenge, you need to push yourself outside your own comfort zone.

So you decided you want to become a day trader to earn the extra money, which would be needed to buy your dream home. One of your goals is now to own a home on the ocean. When creating goals you need to write them out on paper or better yet on your computer for easier updating capability. When writing out your goal you need to be as descriptive as possible. Do not just write I want a house in Florida on the ocean. Be creative with your dreams and goals, let your imagination run wild. What style home do you dream of? A ranch style or a two-story home? 4000 square feet or 10000 square feet? What are the colors? How many bedrooms and bathrooms does it have? Can you visualize the lay out? Does it have a pool in the backyard? If so is it kidney shaped or a rectangle shape? If so write it out. The more details the better.

There will be times when you create one goal and you will find you need to set another goal which will be needed to obtain the bigger goal you created. Think of goal setting like a recipe needed to create a fancy meal, or to bake a cake. If you leave something out of the recipe you are gambling on the outcome of that recipe.

If you plan is becoming a profitable day trader, what are the obstacles that might be in the way? What is needed to help you achieve you goal to becoming a day trader?

Examples of some obstacles would be:

1. Having sufficient money to fund your trading account.

2. Having the proper education to becoming a profitable trader.

3. Is your spouse or partner supporting your idea of becoming a day trader?

4. Does your current job or profession time schedule cause a problem to working

toward obtaining your goal?

5. Is there a local or Internet group for support?

6. Finding the right broker for my needs.

The above are a few example’s of some hurdle’s you have to jump to get you on your way to achieving you goal as a day trader. To overcome the obstacles you might have you will need to work on possible solutions. If one of your obstacles is your need to find more liquid cash to help fund your trading account. You would need to carefully think and brainstorm ways of doing so, maybe you had an old collection of coins or other collectables you could sell to raise the needed capital. If there is a will there is a way!

Each person will have his or her own obstacles to get by. Always make sure it is money you could afford to lose and that it will not alter your current life style.

Do not put unrealistic deadlines on your goals and dreams. Some of your goals might be ongoing with no deadline, other simple type goals will have deadlines. Looking at the above obstacles you can see that some of the above could be met within days or a week at most. The proper education could take months or more. Even with that, you would have a continued goal to keep improving as a trader for years to come. The goal of having a home on the ocean might take some years to achieve, which can be predicated, on the goal of becoming a successful day trader.

By breaking down what is needed to become a successful day trader comes the need to itemize smaller goals. Creating daily tasks that work on helping you in achieving your goals is key. Create a daily plan of attack and work you plan each day. Stay focused and look back over each day to make sure you made progress. Always create smaller goals, which can be met on a day-by-day basis that will give you the energy and encouragement to work on achieving the larger goal. Some other key components you will need to work on are the psychological components. If you need to improve on having more patience, create a goal in descriptive written detail of you showing great patience while trading. If you need to improve on being more decisive do the same exercise as with patience. The key is becoming more aware what truly is needed to obtain your goal.

It’s not as simple as just saying I want to become a successful trader. You first find the recipe and gather all the ingredients and work them in together. The key to achieving your goals is you taking your time and being careful to do all that is necessary to get to the end result. Working on all the small details everyday and concentrating and giving key focus to the daily task and seeing daily progress.

A quick review for setting goals

1. Create a dream list

2. Review the list to see if the dreams are realistic, practical and believable.

3. Write out a descriptive detail of you dreams into a positive statement as it is already achieved.

4. Create a list of all obstacles you will need to over come to achieve your goals.

5. Create a sub-list of goals that can be worked on that can be achieved within a week’s time.

6. Create a daily plan of attack and work you plan.

7. Create a daily task list to work on each day.

8. Review each day, week and month to review your progress.

9. Always adjust your goals higher once you achieve the set goal.

10. Always have continuous goals that are never ending.

11. If you run into a stall, a problem or a set back always look for a different angle to try.