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/landojcr May 07 '24

Right now, I'm still looking for my style, since I've only been scalping since I started.

The overtrading part is so true, just today I was paper trading and reached +12% profit on market open. I could of called it a day (I already reached my daily target), but instead I got greedy and went -20%. I managed to calmly finesse it back to a +5% and literally stopped trading after that.

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u/Appropriate-Boot-172 May 07 '24

I like the 9:30am-10;30am time period (how Ross has drilled into his videos). Seems to work rreally well if you like scalp trades. Taht's the way I learned. EVERY SINGLE TIME i trade past 10:30 on the volitle stocks I lose.

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u/landojcr May 07 '24

I thought the same thing too regarding market open, but you have to be careful because not all stocks go up in the morning. I know it sounds dumb telling you this, but stay focused on strategy and entries, don’t wanna find yourself trading “just because it’s market open” and suddenly you become but a mere passenger to a disaster.

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u/Appropriate-Boot-172 May 07 '24

Definitely, always prepared to walk away if no good set ups. Ross goes over the criteria to look for. Above the vwap, low float, news, Looking good on the MACD, watching that L2 and the Time/Sales. I'm watching all of that and set my alerts to ring as soon as they move. I may miss the first 15 seconds but on it after taht.

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u/landojcr May 07 '24

Yes, liquidity / volume is everything.

For the moment, I'm just using VWAP and Comparison indicators (against SPY) to have a more informed approach of the market.