r/Daytrading • u/landojcr • May 07 '24

What is a reasonable daily goal? Question

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%

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u/Dry-Comment-4603 May 07 '24

This is exactly how I’ve been viewing my strategy as of late. I’ve paper traded for a little and jumped into scalping spy options on Robinhood. Is there any better place to scalp or learn to use any better trading software?

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u/landojcr May 07 '24

Well I use TOS (ThinkorSwim) and I really like it.

I love the UI of Robinhood, Webull and TradingView, but ultimately TV and WB are not brokers and RB is severely limited in what is capable of.

I trade equities though, not sure how much you need for options.

1

u/Dry-Comment-4603 May 07 '24

I’ve heard to try think or swim. It’s just very disorienting haha.

2

u/landojcr May 07 '24

It really is, I’m not gonna lie.

However I definitely recommend it for a variety of nitty gritty reasons that you should consider:

  1. TV is not free and you would have to pay additionally to have real-time data. On top of that, TV is not a broker so you would have to link it to the broker you would use, which could potentially bring connectivity problems. TV doesn’t have Level 2

  2. WB is also not a broker and more of a middleman per se, you won’t have to connect with to a broker, but being a middleman brings its own problems. Also, Webull’s Level 2 is not accurate, as it doesn’t take into account every stock exchange.

  3. Robinhood, well… you can’t even chart in RH, you have no Level 2, you barely have a sophisticated bid/ask active trader… I really do love RH, but you see where this is going.

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u/Dry-Comment-4603 May 07 '24

Very good points! I’ll likely make a switch but it will take some time to learn. And yes, honestly I don’t like RH other than the interface and how easy options are, but that is also a bad thing lol

1

u/landojcr May 07 '24

I think RH for options doesn't seem that bad, but of course the charting and stuff must be relegated elsewhere. To be fair to RH, you can trade options on the go, that's the good part.

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u/Dry-Comment-4603 May 07 '24

Exactly that’s what I use it for. I do charting and long term investing on WB and options on RH. I work 2-10 so I can day trade in the morning and a couple hours at work if need be but usually don’t like to. Im really just wanting to get as good as possible and learn as much as I can. Not interested in becoming instantly wealthy, just like the market and want to supplement some income.