You daytrade, What is your days goal?

if you reach your daily goal early in the day you should keep on trading because you are either 1) trading really good or 2) the market is providing good opportunities. stopping once you reach your goal makes no sense to me whatsoever unless its late in the day and you are tired.
 
The conclusion I've come to, is that for all the big talkers here about how many points, advantages, etc etc, they all lose money. If you run your trading like any business, and you need to make X dollars, or sell so many widgets to stay open.

The most successful, financially, guys I know, just try to make X dollars per trade, and just are in/out all day. making $20-$50 a lot, and trading a few thousand lots a day, pays lots of bills.

Worrying about being endlessly right about the economy, Fed, gov't etc etc just drives you nuts.
 
A high jumper wants to set a personal best by clearing 2.10m. In an international meet, he is feeling on his game and clears the height on his second attempt and is tied for first with 3 other jumpers, they all have 4 attempts left.

Should he tell the scorer that he's done and he'll check back when the event is over to see how he did?

A daily goal is an average over many days, not each individual day. The goal is to trade well and follow your plan, tying everything to money will limit your potential and warp your thinking.

I have monetary goals and like mschey I have a trading plan laid out at the start of each year and reviewed quarterly. The shortest time frame that I look at any p/l numbers is on a weekly basis. I mean I see my p/l throughout the day, but never pay much attention to it. Saturday morning is when I total the week and update my equity curve. What happens M-F is the equivalent of noise on a chart.
 
Quote from bighog:


In the service, a general said to me: Stress makes hero's, the soldier just springs into action, totally fearless, totally focused on his objective, no thinking just a pure action machine, nothing can stop him. (these days that could also apply to the gals serving also).
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...and as we all know a professional military is one of the most stupid person one can meet in this world...
 
The point about stress and the hero is stress can and will affect people in different ways.

Was Audie Murphy just a dumb soldier? Was it stress of the battle that moved him? Normal soldiers do not do what he seemed to do each and every time the occasion came up. What was the motivation factor to be so unusual?

As a trader are are dealing with stress all the time, some handle it different for sure, but stress and speculation are together.

Personally if a day starts out as a loser i feel stress to work my way back, rather than getting upset and losing my focus. Stress helps me......:)

PS, i think Audie murphy did not even finish High school, the most decorated soldier in WW11, a fantastic soldier.

The daily nut of 5 handles is a minimum amount to shoot for, once the nut is/if achieved the rest is either gravy or a guit for the day. less stress that way and besides 5 handles a day is guite an accomplishment. Time to play, later.....:)
 
Quote from txuk:

Jack, thanks for raising this, I was unaware. My wife recently took out a term life policy for us and we just completed our medical exams. I'll look into this alternative and see if it is more suitable for us.

Here is a decent summary...
http://www.answers.com/topic/variable-universal-life-insurance
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Don't buy anything but term. Insurance should not be viewed as an investment vehicle. All other life insurance plans benefit nobody but the agent and company. Also, do not pay extra for the "return of premium" term policy. You can get a better return by investing the money it costs to pay up for a "return of premium policy."
 
Quote from lescor:

A high jumper wants to set a personal best by clearing 2.10m. In an international meet, he is feeling on his game and clears the height on his second attempt and is tied for first with 3 other jumpers, they all have 4 attempts left.

Should he tell the scorer that he's done and he'll check back when the event is over to see how he did?

A daily goal is an average over many days, not each individual day. The goal is to trade well and follow your plan, tying everything to money will limit your potential and warp your thinking.

I have monetary goals and like mschey I have a trading plan laid out at the start of each year and reviewed quarterly. The shortest time frame that I look at any p/l numbers is on a weekly basis. I mean I see my p/l throughout the day, but never pay much attention to it. Saturday morning is when I total the week and update my equity curve. What happens M-F is the equivalent of noise on a chart.
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lescor -

i see your point and appreciate your contribution. the thing is if the high jumper used 4 or 400 more attempts, he'd never lose his personal best if he didn't surpass it. in our game we are always at risk of losing our profit (not that anyone wants to trade not to lose). this, to me, is where appropriate goal-setting comes in handy. if you realistically have it in you to do 2x your current goal, your current goal might be too low.

also, the jumper has a height goal within his overall goal of winning the competition. in our game it's kind of reversed - we have goals for winning trades first, then build other goals (daily, weekly, and so on).

another thing to keep in mind is the individual. some guys may live and die by individual trade goals. others daily. others weekly. and so on. and overall objective colors how someone uses goals - some guys wouldn't want to trade more than a couple of hours while others curse the fact there are only 24 hours a day to trade.

another factor can be level of experience. i think it becomes much easier to focus more on weekly and monthly goals once you have the experience and confidence to consistently reach accelerated daily goals. imho.

i guess the bottom line is that you use goals and have clearly figured out what works for you. that's the real goal and the real challenge. congrats on getting there and i wish everyone else the best on their own journey.

again, thx for your insight and perspective.

take care :)

omni
 
i bought a bunch of 30 year term with the return of premium. It was only like $1000 bucks more per year on 5 million dollars. I thought that was great.
First, its not very much more money.
Secondly, if anything would happen to me, my wife would never have to start working.
Third, it doesn't feel like i'm just throwing the money away because i'm really just losing time value.

Everyone has different goals, but for me it seemed like the right choice and i'm happy with it.

Pierson
 
Quote from pierson:

i bought a bunch of 30 year term with the return of premium. It was only like $1000 bucks more per year on 5 million dollars. I thought that was great.
First, its not very much more money.
Secondly, if anything would happen to me, my wife would never have to start working.
Third, it doesn't feel like i'm just throwing the money away because i'm really just losing time value.

Everyone has different goals, but for me it seemed like the right choice and i'm happy with it.

Pierson
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If you got ROP for $1000 more a year that is extremely cheap and worth it. Typically it's several hundred $ more/mo. Are you sure it's only $1000?
 
If you feel a lot of stress, you are not in control of your trading.

Trades should be careful calculations based on either exact systems, or trading principles combined with discretion.

Stress comes from a sense of unknown or a lack of control over your experiences.
 
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