When I was a young man, I made up a saying that I have repeated to myself many times since. That saying was the title of this post and is one of my favorites:
A goal unset... is a goal unmet!
Goals are a necessity for any successful trader. Without setting and working consistently toward specific goals, a trader will drift, lose momentum, and waste their trading account in arbitrary trades. Goals help traders achieve discipline and remain focused. Studies have shown that over a lifetime, people with written goals accomplish far more than people without them.
The photo in this post is a picture of Alexander Artemev, a gymnast for the U.S. Olympic Men's Gymnastics Team. Last night, he clinched the bronze medal for the U.S. Men's Gymnastics team with a stunning, flawless performance on the pommel horse. His routine was incredible! I've never seen such a masterful pommel horse performance that stood out above his peers. I'm sure that he never would have acheived such a performance without goals along the way.I personally prepare goals weekly and I also use a daily activities checklist of 19 items (this week), using an Excel/Open Office spreadsheet. I examine my trading activity each week. I try to determine what my greatest weaknesses and impediments are, and then I set goals to help me focus on those areas to work toward improvement. Futures trading is a rewarding profession, but a difficult and sometimes excrutiatingly painful one, and people who don't treat it as such will be eaten alive by those who do.
