It took me a long time to figure out that no one really understands why the market does what it does or where it’s going. It’s a delusion to think that you or any one else can know where the market is going. I have sat through hundreds of hours of seminars in which the presenter made it seem as if he or she had some secret method of divining where the markets were going. Either they were deluded or they were putting us on. I have seen many complex Fibonacci measuring methods for determining how high or low the market would move, how much a market would retrace its latest big move, and when to buy or sell based on this analysis. None has ever made consistent money and trading profit for me.

The most valuable stock investing tip that I’ve ever grasped is the one I’m about to explain. One thing a lot of folks battle to come to terms with is their own expectations in regard to their trading. A lot of folks, for instance, have unrealistic expectations and want to make triple digit trading profit on a regular basis.

If you are a person who places high expections on yourself it can be a good thing however, expectations that are not realistic are not. A lot of traders when offered good opportunities which the market offers to receive successful trading results, can easily be drawn into unrealistic goals for their trading. This can cause great devastation.

When one ventures out into gatherings of traders, it is amusing to listen to those who claim anything less than doubling or tripling their cash is not worth their time or effort.  These foolhardy individuals will not even listen to the rock solid plan that can guarantee a 25 – 35% annual return on investment.

Unfortunately for these people, their expectations are often too high and unrealistic. There will be times when they will suffer several losing trades in a row and when this occurs, they potentially will not be able to get back on track. With a slight drawdown in their trading capital and with their unrealistic goals in their mind, they will start to bend the rules and assume unacceptable levels of risk in order to regain the losses quickly and achieve their lofty goals.

A problem that certain traders walk into is even though they set themselves a realistic goal of 20% per year, for instance, they hope to achieve their return within the first few weeks as per say taking a longer term to look over the 12 months. 20% per year is just a tad bit over 1.5% per month and still their are a number of traders who expect to achieve this very fast and possibly take on some of the not so good habits which are mentioned earlier.

In conclusion, some worthwhile advice for investing in stock to guarantee effective trades is to establish objectives for your trades, yet just as importantly to be sure those objectives are quantifiable and feasible. Have fun trading!