Small Goals for Big Changes

Did you know that trading is only 10% of your actual day? That’s why day traders pride themselves on calling it part time.

Yet they don’t tell you that the other 90% of the time traders are learning and backtesting new trades. Analyzing the trades they did of the day and other days.

Sitting in on chat rooms, or watching videos, or taking courses.

And always – ALWAYS – studying charts.

Because there is always something new to learn and ALWAYS something to fix.

So much for part time, huh? But if you love it, it really doesn’t feel like any time spent at all.

Setting Goals – Why Starting Small is the Best Way to Go

Instead of writing down the hundred and one goals I have for my trading to improve, I decided to take it one teeny tiny step at a time.

Aside from trading sites and videos and books and anything trading you can think of, I am also a huge fan of Marie Forleo and have been part of her B-School program. The other day she had an awesome speaker on her show – Todd Herman.

He spoke of five important ways to start to change on a cellular level. Marie’s had tons of shows and speakers, but this guy just really hit my buttons.

The fear, resistance and need to quit always happens just a few paces before the big transformation. That’s why so many people quit. They fall in with the resistance and think it’s never going to happen.

Trust me, I’ve considered quitting time and time again, but I honestly don’t know what else I could do. With all the obstacles I face daily, heart palpitations I get from trading, I really love it.

Anyhow, long story short – I won’t be getting into the whole ‘have a specific vision goal’, you can’t really do change much if you don’t know what you want to change for, right? So create the vision and start with this one simple goal.

Baby Steps – Trigger Goals

Todd Herman calls it Trigger Goals. Basically, he is saying start with baby steps don’t think of the whole picture.

I have been thinking of the whole picture for  years and no matter what I do, I can’t get out of my problematic area.

When trading the ES Mini Futures it is broken down into ticks and points. Four ticks makes up one point. Each tick is worth $12.50 per contract, so each point is worth $50 per contract.

My teacher and other teachers, and traders usually can rack in on average 2 – 4 points per trade. That is usually 8 – 16 ticks.

My average winning trade is two ticks and my average losing trade is 5 ticks.

What kind of numbers are those? No wonder I keep losing!

Even if I win way more than I lose, it’s really hard to make those numbers work well for me.

Stop, Breath, Change Direction

I need to stop right there! And make a serious turn in the road to my path of accomplishment. Obviously, what I have been doing simply isn’t working for me.

Since my focus on doing 2 point wins (8 ticks) is really REALLY difficult for me. I  have now switched my thinking around and have come up with two easy, but important, trigger goals for myself.

My Trigger Goals

1. Get into a compelling trade – basically I have to follow my rules for this one. I have missed a lot due to fear. But I have to simply trust what I have learned.

2. Target ticks – 5 ticks. If I’m in a compelling trade, which I should be if the set up is done properly, I need to hold on to 5 ticks no matter what.

Sounds easy enough, but when emotions are constantly at play, and money is on the line, this becomes extremely complicated.

But doable.

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