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In this video:
00:50   How you can progress with your trading goals heading into 2014
02:36   How many trades are you going to take per day or per week
04:30   Creating a trading plan
06:07   Good technical analysis
 
Let’s talk about your trading goals for 2014. Do you have any in place? If you do have fantastic but if you don’t let’s talk about some ideas right now. 

Hi traders! Andrew Mitchem here, the Forex Trading Coach. Today is Friday the 13th of December so hoped you’re not too superstitious for that.

Trading Goals for 2014

Well as we head towards the end of the year in terms of the trading year we’re seeing some quite of movement on the charts mostly due to the lower volumes that are going through the market right now. So actually it’s really a good time of the year to actually spend over the next couple of weeks some time to reflect on what you’ve done good and bad this year and also how you can progress with your trading heading into 2014.

I’ve made a list here that I’d like to just run through with you that’s just going to give you some helpful hints and some tips about what you should maybe look for on your trading plan and your trading goals for 2014.


How much time do you want to spend on your trading

So start with, for example how much time you want to spend on your trading? How much time can you dedicate? How much time would you like to dedicate to trading? You don’t need to be spending like hours and hours every day but and also the more time you trade does not always mean the more money you make. But just write down how much time do you want to spend or can you spend trading each day.

What time of the day suits you to trade in terms of what works with your job if you’re working, with your family, with any the other social activities you might do. What days of the week suit you best? What times of the day suit you best to trade? What currency pairs do you like trading? Do you look at order pairs that your broker offers or do you concentrate on just the major pairs or maybe you’ve got one or two minor pairs that your favorite. So write those down.

Are you going to be trading only in the direction of the longer term trend or only in the direction of the daily trend using the strength and weakness analysis that I publish each day. Is that going to be something that’s going to aid you? For today, if you’re looking for Australian Dollar/ US to fall like I am today, am I only going to be taking trades on the four hour charts, one hour charts, fifteen minute charts in short positions only and ignoring all buy positions. Write that down if that’s a rule for you.


What are your trading Goals?

How many trades are you going to look to take per day or per week? What happens if you reach that limit? Let’s say your goal was to take no more than five trades in a day and you’ve taken five and you see really good setup? What are you going to do? Are you going to take it? Are you going to leave it?

What performance goals are you going to set yourself per day or per week? Let’s say that your goal is to make 2% per week and let’s say by Wednesday you’ve achieved over 2% and you see a really good setup. Are you going to take that or not? So you need to have these rules set in place. So what it would do by having that plan under those rules in place it will help eliminate the like sort of trigger reactions and the emotional reactions when you’re there taking trades live.

Will you close out trades at the end of the day? Will you close out trades at the end of the week? Will you close out trades only on reversal signals or are you going to employ a 100% set and forget approach to your trading? So in other words you put your stop loss and your profit target and you leave it. It depends what suits you. There’s really no absolute right or wrong way to approach your trade management but it what’s suit you that is important. Also, how much risk are you willing to take per trade? Are you willing to take like 2% per trade? I strongly suggest you don’t but some people or most people would tell you to trade between 2-5% per trade and I think that’s ridiculous. I employ a policy of 0.25 to 0.5% of 1% risk per trade so quarter to half of 1% risk per trade. That’s what suits me and that’s what I strongly suggest people do.

Also if you sort of put all this together, create a trading plan that works for you. Don’t worry about it fitting to someone else’s trading plan create one that works for you that you could realistically stick to and also you realistically achieve. Print that out. Pin it on the wall next to your computer. Look at it all the time look at it every day and look at it before you take positions to see if that what you’re about to do, taking a new position does it meet the criteria of your trading plan. Is it a suitable candle setup? Are all the other criteria that you’re looking for a setup are they all in place? Same with exits, if you are looking at taking, exiting a trade, don’t just do it on an emotional reaction. Exit for a reason and a reason that you’ve already got pre-planned, so that I hope will really help you to create a trading plan that’s going to aid your trading into 2014.

Good technical analysis

 

Other things just on the chart to mention: we’ve seen some strength in the US Dollar. All of this week we’ve seen a lot of weakness on the AUD. I’ve been picking weakness most of the days this week. Yesterday being Thursday I had around 5 pairs I think it was looking at short positions on the Aussie Dollar. It came through beautifully on all of them. So the charts once again were showing me what was likely to happen. Whether it would be fundamental whatever is the reason for the falling of the AUD and I had that already predicted and published well in advanced of that happening and so it just comes back to the fact that good technical analysis can definitely help you predict with high probability where the markets are heading.

Also we are in extremely low volume like I’ve mentioned. I’m looking at ending trading for the year, around the 19th or 20th so next Thursday or next Friday and I’m probably not starting again looking for new positions until Monday the 13th of January.

So that’s all for now. This is Andrew Mitchem from the Forex Trading Coach and if there’s anything I can do to help please let me know. Don’t forget to look out for my 4 day Christmas Special Promotion between the 16th and 19th of December. There’s a $900 US Dollar discount on the course fee, on the standard fee. It’s only between the 16th and 19th of December. Get in quick it’s a great offer. Look forward to helping you be a really successful trader in 2014.

Bye for now and have a fantastic day.