Many new forex traders always wonder how they can make more profit from their trading.
They attempt to set goals like trying to grab specific numbers of pips per day or month.
I think it’s better to focus on the process first, rather than the outcome.
One of the downfalls of setting specific “pip goals” is that it causes you to get frustrated when you’re not hitting them.
You then tell yourself that you will try harder. You follow every single rule in your forex trading plan and you still end up losing money.
You start to concentrate so much on achieving the “goal” that you lose sight of the actual step-by-step process you follow to profit more consistently.
Should this temporary setback stop you from sticking to your regular process?
NO. Especially not over a short period of time.
At the end of each trading day, don’t evaluate yourself by counting how much money you made. Instead, ask yourself:
- “Did I follow all my rules?”
- “Did I execute every trade that my system said I should execute?”
It doesn’t matter that you ended up with a loss – but you now have to find out what mistakes were made and what you can do better next time.
If you answered “no” to any of these questions, slap yourself in the face. I’m kidding. Kind of.
If you don’t follow your rules, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Think of it like a basketball player practicing free throws. A good shooter doesn’t walk up to the line and think, “I have to make 8 out of 10 today.” They focus on the same routine every time: feet set, a few dribbles, eyes on the rim, smooth follow-through.
Some days the ball rims out more than usual, but they don’t scrap their form because of one bad practice. They know that if the mechanics are right, the percentages will work in their favor over hundreds of shots.
Your trading works the same way. Any single trade, day, or even week can go against you, but a sound process repeated consistently is what tilts the odds in your favor over time.
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Here’s the tricky part about chasing pip goals: they can quietly push you into bad habits. Say you’re 20 pips short of your weekly target on a Friday afternoon. Suddenly that so-so setup you’d normally skip starts looking pretty tempting. Maybe you bump up your position size to “catch up,” or you move your stop loss because you can’t stand the idea of another losing trade.
None of those decisions come from your trading plan. They come from the pressure of hitting a number, and that’s exactly how small drawdowns turn into big ones.
A great way to keep yourself honest is to keep a trading journal. After every trade, jot down why you entered, where you placed your stop and target, whether the trade followed your rules, and how you were feeling at the time.Over a few weeks, patterns will start to show up. You might notice that most of your losses come from trades you took out of boredom, or that you tend to close winners too early when you’re nervous. That kind of feedback is far more valuable than a daily profit tally, because it shows you exactly which parts of your process need work.
Define your process by writing down your trading plan and using a journal. If the strategy and numbers makes sense and fits your trading personality, you will eventually see the profits take care of themselves.
Chasing pip goals can pull your focus away from your process, and many traders don’t realize that following their rules consistently matters more than the result of any single day. Premium members can read our lesson:
📖 Sticking to Your Trading Plan
Reading this helps you understand how to follow your trading plan consistently, which common mistakes pull traders away from their process, and how to build the discipline that gives your strategy a real chance to work.
And if you’re not a Premium subscriber yet, consider joining.
With Babypips Premium, you get full access to School of Pipsology lessons that help you understand not just what your trading rules are, but how to stick to them when the results haven’t shown up yet.
