Quick Poll : Targets

[mcgoo]

Being profitable would be nice

[stueytrader]

Being profitable would be nice

Hah - yeh, I always try to keep in mind my general target 'avoid fecking it all up completely'

[FrogThimble]

I had an interesting afternoon regarding targets.

Due to a freakishly good trade on the Perth 2:00pm I found I had hit 126% of my target for today after just one race. So if I'd stuck strictly to my rules I would have quit for the day at that point. I didn't though... I carried on to trade a further 7 races (5 more wins, 1 loss and one break-even) by the end of which I'd hit 139% of my daily target and quit after the Stratford 3:15pm.

Taking the 8 races as a whole I averaged 17% of my daily target per race.
Excluding the 1st freak result, and just looking at the last 7 races, I averaged 1.8% of my daily target per race.

So my question is this: Given that with that one freak result I won 70 times as much I would on a normally trading race and over 7 times as much as I did on my daily average for today was it really a worthwhile use of my time to carry on after the first race?

[spreadbetting]

I had an interesting afternoon regarding targets.

Due to a freakishly good trade on the Perth 2:00pm I found I had hit 126% of my target for today after just one race. So if I'd stuck strictly to my rules I would have quit for the day at that point. I didn't though... I carried on to trade a further 7 races (5 more wins, 1 loss and one break-even) by the end of which I'd hit 139% of my daily target and quit after the Stratford 3:15pm.

Taking the 8 races as a whole I averaged 17% of my daily target per race.
Excluding the 1st freak result, and just looking at the last 7 races, I averaged 1.8% of my daily target per race.

So my question is this: Given that with that one freak result I won 70 times as much I would on a normally trading race and over 7 times as much as I did on my daily average for today was it really a worthwhile use of my time to carry on after the first race?

What do you do when you fail to hit a target, add it to the next day? Seems that big win affected you so much you underacheived for the rest of the day, maybe if you'd persevered you'd have got the averages back to 100% for the remaining races. Do you also have daily targets for each weekday? I couldn't imagine winning as much on a Sunday as I do on Saturdays.

[FrogThimble]

What do you do when you fail to hit a target, add it to the next day? Seems that big win affected you so much you underacheived for the rest of the day, maybe if you'd persevered you'd have got the averages back to 100% for the remaining races. Do you also have daily targets for each weekday? I couldn't imagine winning as much on a Sunday as I do on Saturdays.

No, I don't transfer targets to the next day. My target is the same each day regardless of what happens the previous day and regardless of how many races are on... in actual fact this Sunday was an easier day to hit the target than most days due to the fact that I only trade races that are over 9 furlongs or longer. I had 22 chances to build my bank today. Tomorrow I will only have 14 chances (including Ireland). The purpose for me in having a target isn't to suggest to myself what I should win but to suggest to myself what I should be content to win - and then to step back early (if I can) and mentally prepare for the next trading day.

I'll talk in specifics about today... My target for today was to get an overall 10% profit on my bank. If I had traded all 22 UK races I would have needed to average a 0.45% profit per race.

After race 1 my bank stood at 12.6% up on the starting point (12.6% up on carried forward bank)
After race 2 my bank stood at 17.0% up on the starting point (3.8% up on carried forward bank)
After race 3 my bank stood at 17.7% up on the starting point (0.6% up on carried forward bank)
After race 4 my bank stood at 18.1% up on the starting point (0.3% up on carried forward bank)
After race 5 my bank stood at 12.9% up on the starting point (-4.1% down on carried forward bank)
After race 6 my bank stood at 13.5% up on the starting point (0.6% up on carried forward bank)
After race 7 my bank stood at 13.9% up on the starting point (0.3% up on carried forward bank)
After race 8 my bank stood at 13.9% up on the starting point (no change on carried forward bank)

Tomorrow to hit my target I will need to have an average bank increase per race of 0.72% so it seems unlikely that can be reached tomorrow. On most such days with a low number of long distance races I know I can't hit the target but I don't mind so long as I am up overall.

I can see a logic, of course, in having an average per race target rather than a per day target... but that wouldn't meet my aims of knowing when to stop each day.