The Right Way to Set Goals for 2026

I started my career in the trading pits of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) more than 40 years ago. There, I saw a lot of traders come and go.

And I mean a lot…

Some couldn’t cope with the pressure. It was just too overwhelming, with hundreds of people screaming out on the trading floor, trying to get their trades filled.

I don’t mean that as any criticism. Until you’ve experienced that pressure yourself, it’s hard to appreciate how competitive it was.

But another characteristic that undid many new traders was something beyond the sheer energy of the trading floor. And it applies as much today as it did then…

Avoid Playing Catch-Up

The mistake many traders make is to set far too unrealistic goals. They simply want to make more money than their experience or the market allows them.

One common piece of advice for goal setting is to have a fixed end date. That way, you can break the goal into what should be a series of achievable targets. And I say “should” for a reason. This is where so many traders come undone…

Take, for example, a trader who sets himself a goal of making $50,000 in his first year. That breaks down to around just $200 a day.

Sounds easy enough, right?

However, the problem arises when he misses that daily target and decides to compensate by doubling the size of his trade the next day.

Or if he’s had a rough few weeks, he might be tempted to go all in the following month, trying to get his profit goals back on track.

But over-trading, trading too big positions, or taking low-probability trades will almost certainly make matters worse.

Another losing month followed by even bigger catch-up bets can set off a downward spiral. And that inevitably puts a trader out of the game.

New Approach

I learned from blowing up my own trading accounts multiple times that you need a different approach if you’re going to survive…

For starters, I recommend shrinking your trades during losing streaks. In my career, if I were having a rough period, I’d cut the size of my trades in half until I got things back on track. And if that didn’t work, I’d halve that size again.

All the while, I’d be steadily banking any profits I could. I didn’t hang on to winning trades in the hope of making more money to recover my account. Doing so often turns a winning trade into a loser.

And the biggest change I made was something that I still use to this day…

Rather than focusing on a long-term profit target, I judged my performance based on the available opportunities.

If the market stayed flat and quiet one day, I wouldn’t be too hard on myself if I didn’t make a lot of money. But if the market was busy the next day and I still missed a lot of opportunities, I’d push myself to try to do better.

I learned to only trade what was in front of me… and not chase some far-flung goal. Once I fully understood this, my trading career really took off.

And once you start taking the right approach in these kinds of scenarios, you can greatly increase your chances of making it as a trader over the long term.

Happy Trading,

Larry Benedict
Editor, Trading With Larry Benedict