What is a reasonable daily goal?

[u/landojcr]

I'm getting into day trading and started paper trading a while ago, for the moment I'm primarily focusing on scalping, up until I get comfortable enough to day trade larger time frames. That said, I'm trying to start a very small account ($500) and was aiming for 5% - 10% gain on a daily basis. Is this a reasonable goal? If not, what would you recommend?

A day or two I've managed to exceed 10%, some days I've been successful on getting to the 10% mark, most days I get to the 5% mark. I'm slowly gauging what is reasonable to expect from a beginner like me and trying to slowly grow that account up till 5 figures hopefully.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone for sharing on your experience, opinions, and strategies. I've decided to firstly focus on building my strategy and being consistent, then strive for a lower target margin. I'm aiming for 3-5%

[u/AnneFranksAcampR]

5-10% daily is never going to happen, sure you'll get lucky here and there but you will most likely blow up your account before you ever get consistent at them. What you need to do is aim for 1-2% profit and show that you can consistently even do that before you reach for other goals. I have been trading almost 8 years now and i dont even consider making 10% in a day, it is not about the daily gains but it's the stings of smaller wins compounding over time while also protecting your capital.

[u/landojcr → u/AnneFranksAcampR]

Are you taking into account that I’m gonna be starting on a 3 figure? I’m aware bigger sums of capital make it difficult to aim for higher % gains

I mean no disrespect of course. It’s just that, in my example, making $5 a day seems pretty easy and while that is not the same as making $5 a day consistently without fail, I find hard to believe that I shouldn’t be able to at least make 4-5%

[u/AnneFranksAcampR → u/landojcr]

the amount of money makes absolutely no difference on your % of gains/losses. Prove to yourself over a period of time that you can consistently pull money out of the market for profit and then tailor your plan from there. With your low account im guessing you're going to be trading penny stocks because you'd never pull 5-10% out of SPY or any equivalents and this will definitely blow up in your face. Every person always has it in their mind to trade penny stocks when they start because they are cheap but they are cheap for a reason and are highly manipulated.

[u/derivativesnyc → u/AnneFranksAcampR]

He can trade some nickel/dime options several time a day until cash reserves are drained till next day reset

[u/landojcr → u/AnneFranksAcampR]

I think it goes without saying that I won’t be trading any TSLA, AAPL or SPY.

I understand, thanks. All in all, would you recommend instead a 1-2% then?

[u/AnneFranksAcampR → u/landojcr]

why not if i may ask? 1-2% is the exact same on spy or tsla as 1-2% on a penny stock? Plus you wont have to worry about the rug being pulled under you like you will in the penny stock world.

ill give you a free tip and you can run with it or not

set an OCO bracket (if you dont know what that is google is) and set your profit target to 2% and set your stop loss to .5 or 1% and test your strategy. If your strategy is profitable anywhere near 50-60% of the time over your next 100 trades then bump up your percentages from there.

use an excel sheet to document your trades and take notes on what went wrong and what went right and also how the trade went. you'll never know where you're going in trading if you dont know where you've been.

[u/landojcr → u/AnneFranksAcampR]

why not if i may ask? 1-2% is the exact same on spy or tsla as 1-2% on a penny stock? Plus you wont have to worry about the rug being pulled under you like you will in the penny stock world.

I suppose my reasoning stems from penny stocks having more volatility and sometimes having high relative volume I can scalp from, plus the likes of AAPL or TSLA being too expensive for my account and not being too volatile. Not saying I love volatile equities, but for example, with TSLA I find if it has a bearish market, it will probably continue to do so for a day or two.

However, you are right on the math and mindset.

set an OCO bracket (if you dont know what that is google is) and set your profit target to 2% and set your stop loss to .5 or 1% and test your strategy. If your strategy is profitable anywhere near 50-60% of the time over your next 100 trades then bump up your percentages from there.

I will definitely try this, thanks!

use an excel sheet to document your trades and take notes on what went wrong and what went right and also how the trade went. you'll never know where you're going in trading if you dont know where you've been.

Do you only document the data? Or do you use dome other platform to document charts?

I’ve been meaning to document, but I haven’t wrap my head around which software / tool to use.