I day trade ES for a living, and am living proof that it is possible to make weekly income in this game. For me, 2500 ticks is the sweet spot because most of my entries are around the open. In the past I would do something similar to you, after a successful 8 tick scalp would turn it off for the day. As soon as the daily profit target was hit, I'd be done. Of course there were days when every single entry would have been profitable... however there were also plenty of days where stopping after the first win preserved the winning day stopping it from turning into a losing day. Over the years, the number 1 thing that has helped me with only taking perfect entries has been switching trading to a server. Personally I use NinjaTrader, but it works with any trading software. I have my NT charts running on a VPS, and have coded my entry rules to send my phone an alert when the chart is beginning to form a possible entry. Then I remotely login to the server from my phone to monitor the chart formation manually. With trading on a VPS, I no longer miss perfect entries. But the most important part is that I no longer have to sit in front of the computer all day. We all know staring at a chart all day is extremely draining (especially if you're not making money). Ideally a better programmer would automate the entries and run that on the VPS. But I found fully automating entries very difficult. Even though the entries are rules based, there is still a discretionary element which I cannot seem to code, at least not in live trading/back tests. Perhaps the discretionary element is my edge. Would highly recommend checking out https://www.ninjamobiletrader.com/ I'm running on their lowest tier 4 GB RAM server, and it is perfect for day trading the ES. From market open for the first 30 minutes I connect to the server using my home computer for maximum focus. Then after that I shutdown my home computer while NinjaTrader is still running on the server and I've got a custom indicator that sends me alerts when the chart is beginning to form for my entry rules. I'll run errands during the day, and enjoy the day, but if I get a perfect trade alert I easily pull up the server on my phone and place the Limit order with the attached ATM strategy using my phone. Now that the entry rules are running on the server, I've thought about expanding to multiple instruments in the same way, and will probably upgrade to the 12GB RAM server for higher performance. As you said, if your main problem is fear from losing trades, the problem might be with the discretionary component to your entry rules. You fear that it worked for the first winning trade, but sitting at your computer all day is exhausting and makes sticking to your rules difficult for replicating it throughout the day. Give https://www.ninjamobiletrader.com/ a shot, you won't need to sit at your computer all day. They've been very reliable for my day trading, and it's a Windows Server so you can install any software you like without limitation, not just NinjaTrader.
Day 5: Traded like garbage. Wasn't selective and overtraded. I deserve the loss. Even revenge traded at some point. Broke all my rules. ES MES
Gah, that's frustrating. Looks like you were biased long mostly, and got psyched out by the drop into the mid-morning. And then what happened when you stopped trading? The rise into the afternoon. Your bias was correct! Keep an eye out for that pattern!
Are you looking around at some of the other girls too? The RTY can be a good vehicle to day trade. Check the % Change for RTY, NQ, ES shown in the light blue print at the top of this chart. BTW, why you wanna quit your job at just 20k, you gonna need 5 times that. Don't quit till you can't afford to go to work any more; when it costs more to work due to the opportunity cost of missed trades. IMHO Till that day, get to work and be extra diligent.
Of course you don't see it, you gamble on charts. If you look deeper, every time you post a limit order, you're giving away a free option and every time you take the market fall victim to somebodies mousetrap. Trading is about understanding liquidity and finding mispricing. You want to be the guy to provide liquidity in size at a price that is advantageous to you. But in order to do this you need to: 1. Know the correct price of the asset at the moment you're posting your order 2. Be the only one at that particular price This leads to a situation where you always have a winner as soon as your order gets filled. Everything else is just jumping on momentum or trying to lean on other peoples orders (aka. abusing the free option) which - of course - is the domain of the machines. If you're good at that power to you but I have yet to see somebody who trades more than 100 cars outright in the ES. "wElL buT ReTAil dOeSN't nEed tO TraDe THaT BIg" How do you get cheaper commissions and thus make more profit per contract? Right, you need to trade more size....which in turn opens you up for strategies that require cheap commissions which allows you to even trade bigger size that gives you even lower commissions. That's how you scale. And if you ask yourself how you can know the correct price of the ES...well, compare it to something you can (risk)arb it against.