Video Transcript:
Most traders set their profit goals like, “I want to make 5% profit per month” That sounds smart, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. It’s actually one of the fastest ways to blow your account. And in this video, I’ll show you why profit goals hurt your trading and what you should focus on instead.
The problem is that sometimes market conditions just aren’t good for trading. Even the best traders in the world know that sometimes the best thing to do is just sit on your hands and do nothing. But imagine a beginner who sets a goal to make 5% a month. What’s logically going to happen? Well, they take a few trades at the start of the month. Things don’t go as planned, and they are still very far from that 5% goal. So what do they do? They start to force it. They look for trades where there are none. They trade instruments they don’t really know, and they mess up their risk management. They stop respecting stop losses or move them further and further away just to avoid a loss that would take them even further from their 5% dream. Or they risk too much just to catch up.
And I guarantee you one thing: the only thing a trader chasing 5% a month will not do is follow their plan 100%. Because their goal is the 5% profit, not following the plan.
It’s like going to the gym. You set a goal to bench press 225 lbs in one month. What happens? You start pushing too hard even when your body needs rest. You stop taking recovery days. You ignore fatigue and neglect the other muscle groups just to improve your bench press. You focus on that one number and force it as much as you can just to hit those two plates. And this is the fastest way to get injured. Maybe your wrist gives out and you can’t train for weeks. If you are too stubborn, you wrap it up and keep pushing through the pain. But is that good? It’s not, is it? You’re just destroying yourself. Maybe you’ll hit that 225 lbs. But at what price? Now you have to heal properly. You’ll be out of the game for months.
And it is the same in trading. Chasing a number leads to injuries in your trading account.
Now imagine the goal wasn’t 5% profit. Instead, your only goal is simple: follow your trading plan exactly as written. Every trade, every rule, no exceptions. What happens then? When market conditions are good, you’ll usually make money. Maybe 2%, maybe 5%, maybe 10% the exact number is not fully in your control. The market decides how much it gives. But when conditions are bad, you are still protected because you respected your rules and your risk. And a bad period won’t destroy your account.
Think about a tennis player. During a match, they focus on their process hitting the ball correctly, serving well, reacting fast. They don’t just stare at the scoreboard all the time. Staring at the score doesn’t bring the win. The process does.
You can even start from the very end. Ask yourself: what is my actual goal? Is it to make 5% a month? Okay, fine. 5% a month it is. But instead of chasing the number, ask yourself who you need to become to achieve that. This is how you flip it from the result to the process.
So ask yourself, what kind of trader do I need to become, and what kind of habits do I need to build to reach 5% a month and do it consistently? That’s what you should focus on.
So what does that trader actually look like? How does a trader who consistently makes 5% a month behave? Every single month they show up for the markets. They have a solid routine. They treat this like a business, like a full-time job. They take it seriously. They keep detailed trade statistics, and they maintain a trading journal with screenshots of every setup and every trade they take. They have a written trading plan where their strategy is precisely defined, and they follow it 100%.
So this should be your goal: to become that specific trader. And once you become that person, those percentage goals will start to happen naturally. But you need to become that trader first.
My friend Sterling, who is also a coach with us at the Funded Trader Academy, has a brilliant trick that he shares with our students. What he tells them is this: forget about the money for a moment and set a completely different goal. The goal is to execute 20 trades in a row absolutely 100% according to your trading plan. Zero deviations. Every single rule in your plan must be followed to the letter for 20 trades straight.
Now let me tell you, most traders even the ones who think they are already pretty good can’t do it. It’s no joke. It’s actually really hard. But the moment you finally manage to pull it off, you become a completely different trader. Why? Because you’ve just built a rock-solid habit that you can rely on. And trust me, a trader who has this level of discipline will find it much easier to reach their percentage goal.
For this topic, I was actually inspired by the book Atomic Habits. The author talks about a very interesting concept: the curve of how a person actually improves. People often think there’s a direct linear relationship between how long they study something and how good they get. They expect a straight line of progress. But the problem is that at the beginning, that linear relationship just isn’t there. It looks more like this: you are learning, you are putting in the work, but you are not seeing the results yet. It looks like you are making zero progress, and this is why you are frustrated. It is called the valley of disappointment.
He compares it to having an ice cube in a freezing room. Imagine the room is 0° Fahrenheit and you start heating it up. You heat it to 10°, then 20°, then 30°. But when you look at the ice cube, it’s still there. It hasn’t melted at all. And this is the danger zone. You feel like you aren’t making any progress, but you actually are. It’s just not visible yet. For many people, this is incredibly frustrating, and this is exactly where they quit.
But if you stick with it and keep heating the room, the moment you cross 32°, the ice cube suddenly starts to melt. And the ice wouldn’t melt without all the heating from 0° to 32° first. The tricky part is that this progress is invisible. That’s why most people give up. But after you cross this threshold, it might look like everything suddenly starts working out of nowhere. But it’s not like that. Before that sudden success, there was a lot of invisible work that was super frustrating because it looked like you were going nowhere.
And that brings me back to the process. When your goal is to have the best possible process like following your trading rules then sooner or later, even if it looks like it’s leading nowhere at first, your ice cube will suddenly melt and you will realize that you’ve reached your goal. And from there, you can just keep going.
Now let’s get practical. What should you do right now? Three things.
First, stop chasing the 5% and start building the trader who can make it. Sit down and ask yourself, what does a trader who consistently makes 5% a month actually look like? How do they behave? Write down their traits and what they do. They don’t gamble. They don’t skip their routine. They are professional. They are calm. And they are prepared. Your goal now isn’t to make money. It’s to act like that person. If you act like it long enough, the result will eventually show up in your account.
Step number two: take the 20-trade challenge. Try to take 20 trades in a row with zero deviations from your plan. If you fail on trade 15, you start over at trade one. And remember, this isn’t just a drill. It’s how professional trading habits are built. Once you can pass this challenge, you’ve officially graduated from gambler to trader.
Step number three is the ice cube audit. When you feel frustrated because your account isn’t growing yet, don’t just be patient. Do an audit. Open your journal, look at your trades, and ask yourself: did I heat the room today? Was I trading like a professional? If the answer is yes, then you are making progress, even if the ice hasn’t melted yet. If you followed your plan, you did your job. The result is coming. You just have to keep the heat on until it becomes visible.
So focus on these three things, and I promise you the pressure will drop and your performance will stabilize. Thanks for watching the video. I hope it was helpful. Now go get started on those 20 trades.
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