We have all probably heard of the trader who turned $10,000 into over $1,000,000 in one year. Well it has been done but do you really believe you can do it? You've also probably seen the ads and websites, which claim big returns with minimal work. Ask yourself, is this the norm or is it hype or just a fluke?
You know the kinds of ads I'm talking about, “I consistently have 50 winning trades in a row with no losses let me show you how", or "the trader that will show you how he makes thousands per day from his mountain top retreat while spending quality time with his family and pets". If you have even done demo trading and for sure live trading you know that it take some concentration and work to consistently make a lot of money trading.
If you trade with Unrealistic Goals, or No Goal you are setting yourself up for failure. Your goal has to be more than “I want to make a lot of moneyâ€. You will need to set something like I will make $xx.xx per day based on the size of your account. i.e. $5 on a $500 account $10 on a $1000 account per day. This equates to $1250 and $2500 per year on each of these accounts. These figures are realistic. Or you will only trade 2% or 5% of your account at a time. Or you will always set a stop loss on every trade. These are realistic goals.
I believe promotional material like this does a lot of damage to the average trader. After reading enough of these things it becomes easy to believe, (maybe not consciously), that these sorts of returns are normal.   Because traders want to believe these kinds of returns are not only possible, but also expected, they usually end up making poor trading decisions chasing the dream. The statements are not normal. If they were then ever one would be making the huge amounts of money that others tout. If a trader puts in the time to learn how to trade they can make some good money trading. It does not happen overnight and it does not happen without a lot of study and practice. Keep things in perspective and realize that there is no free lunch so to speak.