Even more important. Place a monetary value on how much you would be willing to lose in a day before throwing in a towel. Thats a subconscious thought that will pay to have ingrained in your mind. Let your losers die quickly and your profits run.
There is no 'right' way to trade. There are countless methods and analysis used in trading. Just do what you are comfortable with if it is making u money. If not, change things up and try something else. However, in my opinion, like many other traders on ET, i dont think setting daily profit caps are a good way to go. Everything comes down to the price action. If the market looks like it is favoring your trade, stick with it and see where it leads you. If things look like they are going to turn against you, tighten your stop losses. Dont be a short term trader only, mix things up. If your making some profits on the day, take some but leave a few positions on if the price action is still favoring your trade. Also, use higher timeframe on charts to get a better picture of the market. I use 15 min usually for intraday but i like using 60 and daily for patterns and support/resistance breaks to trade. Might depend on what u trade but it works for me really well.
It is normal human emotions and actions that after a goal is hit even if that goal is hit within the first 15 minutes of market open to try and trade through-out the day... Doing this as I have blown up 4 accounts leads to failure and only that. I myself learned the hard way and it is patience and psychological discipline. Dont want to sound like a rude dick but if you like to simply trade and press buttons after you meet your goal then press buttons playing a video game, it might help the anxiety of having the urge to keep trying to trade and the (what if, I could've made that?) Discipline Patience or u dont get laid...
What's with the P/L trading? Just trade the setups. If setups don't work at a certain time of day then don't trade those times of day. Why stop because you're up x amount, when another setup will come along with positive expectancy? Your present P/L has no effect on the viability or likely outcome of the next trading setup that comes along.
Don't revenge trade. I have yet to see a trader make money every single day. If you lose money during the day, cap the loss. Don't look to try to get all back on the next trade, that is the gambler's mentality. If you are trading 10 contracts and lose, don't go to 20 contracts on your next trade. Set a goal for the day, plan out each trade like you are going to rob a bank 1) Look for the setups 2) Look at what you plan to do if things don't go your way. 3) Look at what are you going to do once you get all of the bank's money to get away clean.
Not To Be a Big Dick but if you cant calculate that there are an estimate of "20" trading days in a month x 12 months a year give/take a few holidays that markets are closed that would make a quick 20 second calculation of 240 trading days a year...If you needed to come on this site to ask that and couldn't figure that out yourself I think u are fucked to be a trader..
Silly. $50 0per day. You have great days and bad days. If you start capping your great days you are throwng away profits. It's no different to taking profits too early. I guess it appeals to many...but in reality it's not doable.