Setting Goals

First, I'd like to thank those that take the time to follow me. I am not sure what your reasons are, or what you expect to get out of following me, but thank you nonetheless. If you do ever have a question, comment, criticism, gripe, whatever, just holler.

Secondly, as my follower list grows, I do see an increasing number of questions come my way. When reviewing these questions from 2010, it became apparent to me that many can be summed up into just a few categories. One such category has to do with Setting Goals.

So why is this important to set goals? Isn't the main goal really simple, make a profit?

Seems simple enough. Unfortunately, it far from simple. Because of this, you must decide each year what you want to achieve. Some examples below should provide food for thought:

• Do I want to learn options? Would that help my performance?
• Do I set a target profit goal? Percentage or $ Amount?
• Do I set a goal for my # of trades each quarter? Does that help me stay focused?
• Do I need to read more trading books? If so how many? Which ones?
• Should I join a chat room? What would I gain from that?
• Should I review my Trading Journal each week? For how long (2 hours, 4 hours?)?
• Should I do x # of hours of Fundamental Analysis each week? Increase this # if already doing it?

As you can see from these few examples, there are many aspects in goal setting each year that should be addressed - I've touched just a few of the many areas. You decide for yourself what goals to set, try to come up with at least 5.

Remember, they don't all have to address a shortcoming. You can set a goal that it designed to expand something that you do well.