Your focus should not be on specific daily P/L but rather on doing the right thing, on how close you are able to duplicate your simulated trades in real time, on monitoring yourself to make sure you are not gun shy or get carried away. Take the setup that has been the most promising of the different things you have tried and trade just that one setup until you have it down pat before branching out to other setups and time scales. GC
Jimmy, honestly if you need to ask a question like this you should not be trading (for your own sake). Stick the 3.5k in a money market and get a real job, study the market in your spare time. Trading isn't tough but requires a less traveled road to be successful. When you understand the when's, why's, etc your worst trades will likely give you a chance to make $17.5.
$17, about 1-2 ticks on the YM. Sorry if I'm off I don't follow the YM but you can make 1 tick by accident. What's the daily range? What are you using to determine when to get in a trade? What is your risk reward/ratio? Is your perceived advantage too small for some trades you are getting into? What you should really try to do is make $17 every trade. $17 a day is no way to live. The mental aspect of trading for $17 is worth it. Go work part time to make some money and think about what you really need to do to be successful.
Jimmygold... It seems your simming has reduced your confidence by 70%. ($60 daily reduced to $17.50). That does not form a good set of mental attributes for starting to trade with real money. IMO, if your GOAL is $17.50, just use your money and move to Las Vegas. You can get $17.50 going hotel to hotel, finding forgotten change in slot machine coin catchers. No muss, No fuss. No risk. As someone pointed out, in YM you can catch 1 or 2 tics by accident. Your original goal of $60 a day is realistic, but you do not have the skill set to do it. No offense intended. Don't waste your time with a goal of 17.50. Hone your skills. Keep simming until you find something that works for you. Or move to Vegas. JMHO, Osorico
$60 a day is less than $15k per year. also not worth the trouble. you need at leat $500 a day to make it worth the effort. this is not problematic. however, you need a lot more capital than $4000 to pull it of consistently and without risk of going bust. think at least in the region $300k+.
You don't trade futures do you? A good futures trader does not need anywhere near 300K to make daily $500 and much more with futures. Yes, I said does not need anywhere near 300K to make daily $500 and much more! A starting balance of 3500 is lite, but completely workable with solid money management rules, and discipline to follow those rules. The problem is the OP does not, as proven by his new and reduced goal of 17.50.
I do actually and have been in the business long enough (over 10yrs) to not believe anyone who says he can consistently and without significant risk of blowing up his account make more than 80% pa in the long run. Beginners should be aiming for maximum of 30-40% pa. And that doesn't depend on how good your setup / system is, that all boils down to using conservative leverage. Anyone trading unhedged equities (futures) with more than 1:3 leverage will sooner or later (but not in the very distant future) blow up his account.