Mid-Year Check: Are You Meeting Your Trading Goals?

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If you need to make changes to your goals, trading processes, or strategies. Here are some tips to get you started!


1. Review your trading performance.

You’ll need information before you can make any changes, so whip out that trading journal that you painstakingly kept through the year.What, don’t have one? Shame on you, but there’s no better time than now to start.


If you’re a good trader and you do have one, look back on your 2016 trading goals. Based on your stats, do you think you’re on track to meet them? Which processes can you improve on?


Are you doing your best to consistently execute your entire trading process (market analysis, strategy & risk management practices , review and adjustment processes, etc.)? What trading psychology issues prevented you from realizing your goals? Give yourself a pat on the back if none of the 5 common newbie mistakes made it to on your list.


2. Identify the factors that influenced your trades.

Once you have identified the factors that you can improve on, identify the ones that influenced your trades but weren’t in your control. Look back on the economic themes that popped up in the first half of the year and how the market interpreted them.


How long do you think did each of these themes drive price action? Do you think they’ll still matter in H2 2016? Did volatility increase or decrease, and what’s expected of volatility for H2? Ask questions like these and more to figure out how you need to adapt going forward.


3. Make realistic adjustments for the second half of the year.

Based on what you learned about yourself from your trading journal and what you know about how the market priced in this year’s economic themes, you can now make adjustments to your trading goals, strategies, and risk/trade management practices for the rest of the year.


Ask yourself if you need tweak your existing goals and your trade management techniques. Do you need to look at different statistics this time? How about a different strategy altogether if market behavior has changed? If you’re thinking of changing your trading system, make sure that it has a good chance of working well in the different economic scenarios that could pop up in the coming months.



Keeping trading resolutions is always challenging after January. But remember that you made them for a reason. With a little reminder and a few adjustments, you’ll get right back on track to the goal of becoming a consistently profitable currency trader or investor.