Goal Setting

After reading a great post by Brett Steembarger, I've realized it is important to establish a few process goals for my trading. These goals are not dependent upon market conditions, but yet they depend on me for accomplishment.

One of the process goals I've set to myself was daily journaling. My goal is to have every single trading day documented, I've set a target of 21 days of blogging, and am glad to report I'm almost there. This week I'll complete 21 days and therefore pass the threshold of repetition necessary to create a habit. So one goal is down, there are a few more to pursue. Here is my list of trading goals:

1) Daily Journaling and Monitoring: I'm there, all my trades are properly documented and monitored, the blog is serving as a great journaling tool, it is easy, fast and allows me to share/inspire others as well.

2) zero execution errors: One too often I found myself complaining about a contingent order that mis-fired, or a trade entry that wasn't properly set. I'll start tracking this on a daily basis with the goal of having 1 full cycle without any execution errors, I can increase this goal once the full cycle is reached.

3) VIPES for every trade: Another goal, is simply to run Dan's suggested Volatility-Industry-Price-Earnings-Skew studies before entering any trade. I'll keep this documented in my journal as well.

4) zero plan deviation: This is the tough one. I have to plan the trades and trade the plan. Once too often I find myself deviating from the original plan and changing things around. So here it goes, sticking to the plan is another goal.

Here they are, properly docummented and I'm committed to them. Will track them on a daily basis.