I'm with Dustin on the numbers. But a simpler version is that you are a good day trader if you can consistently make more than you require when you only trade 100 days a year. IMHO, if you can do that then the money and lifestyle is sorted.
a trader who can be humble and can try to give back to family ,friends , society or charity might be rewarded in more ways than you can imagine and might even have more money to boot
I guess that would make me a good trader then I'm saying that if someone comes in with great percentages, they obviously know something that COULD be scaled, and that means even bigger bucks for large funds. my humble opinion from handling money...
If you EVER blow up, then you must conclude that you are really a no-talent hack and lucky to have made money in the first place.
All this talk about % return in a year seems so artificial to me. With all the various forms of leverage out there, Return Vs risk seems much better. The idea that strategies can just just be scaled up indefinitely, or to whatever the market allows have never been there. Personal barriers also come into play even thought they shouldn't in theory. Also ways remember, Amateurs worry about how much they can make. Pro's worry about how much they can lose. Maybe something like yearly profit over worst drawdown that year?
Make enough to retire, then retire, then you are successful. In this business "it aint over until the fat lady sings" and I'm sure you can get plenty of stories right here about how someone has made and lost millions.