pattern day trader , you have to have at least 25k in the account and you have access to more margin. For my broker with a PDT account you can use 4x margin.
I was trading pretty well until I set a monetary goal for myself. I say, just $100/day. Then all a sudden, I was making $200/day, $500, and then $1000/day. I ran my $10k to almost $20k in less than a month. Guess what, I was been greedy and STUPID. I just ignore my rules, and start chasing on the amount instead of trading well. I gave all the gain. Now I am just sitting on sideline until I get over it and mentally prepare again.
chicco, are you papertrading because you can not day trade with $13k. I guess it allows only 4 roundtrip trades then flags the account as PDT.
I guess margin is nothing to do with PDT. Unless you have $25000 in the account, PDT rule will not allow to daytrade more than 4 roundtrip trades in a day. Not sure which broker you are using. PDT Rule http://www.whitepacific.com/trading/day_trading_faq.php
A fixed amount of $100-200 per day is not likely to be realized because you will attempt to trade every day even the odds are not in your favor; then it's poised to make lots of mistakes. No existing trading system will be winning on every day basis. However, an average per day of that amount is likely possible if you know well the trade system that can achieve you this result. Say you will execute 3-4 trades biweekly and the daily gain average would be something in that range.
What are you guys trading to yield these kind of returns? What software + symbols? Is it stocks? Appreciate any info.