I believe that targets are very bad for you. It can make you trade that little bit more than you should have done at a time when you know you should have stepped back and stayed out as the conditions are not right - just to try and achieve your target.
I learnt that one during my first few weeks trading (demo only but it stil hurt).
I have now put my first real cash into an account and the discipline and money management techniques I learnt are now more important then ever. I am pleased with today's trading and not once thought about the money or targets - only achieving points that I thought were going to be available given the way the Dow was moving today. I hit it at the right time when it moved both up and down today, got my entry and exit points about right based on info I've learned from posts by Skim, Chartman, Naz & other experience Traders, with money management techniques learned from training with Naz.
I write down at the start of each day the rules I must adhere to - mostly learned from posts on T2W and books I have read - one of these rules says 'I have no targets, my aim is to trade well'. At the end of the day I cross through each rule that I stuck to and highlight any I broke so the next day I know I have to try harder to stick to those rules. If I lose I write down exactly why I lost - it helps to stop me from repeating the error - greed is the one which occurred alot to begin with and personally I associate targets with greed.
I know I have a long way to go but I also know I have learned so much in a few months from this site and some good books.
Good Luck Andrew, don't be put off by experts telling you that you are more likely to fail, you probably will but I recommend you demo trade all those failures out of your system first to give yourself a fighting chance.
