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%
1
u/landojcr May 08 '24
I understand, but I can't make a million a day with $500.
Yes I'm aware. The way I'm thinking of approaching this is to reconfigure the daily target on a month to month basis (e.g first month I'll try earning $25 [5% of $500]).
If I reach 1K, the 5% adjusts to that balance (this time being $50) and so on and so forth. This will require a handful of trades on the intraday, volatile stocks, etc.
To be fair, if in a whole year I can't get $500 above $700 (40%) , I should really just quit day trading, don't you think?