Use a percentage of the average range of the time you will spend trading. Not all days are typical. This way makes more sense as a guideline
first, set a target AFTER commission, slippage, bid/ask spread, etc. There is a major difference between sim and real world trading. second, it is not just about how much you made. What does your drawdown analysis say? what is your profit factor/expectancy? what is your sharpe? In other words, profits from trading ugly will likely not last. The Risk of Ruin applies to everyone. Some traders are much more likely to meet the inevitable implosion, strange market, losing spell, whtaver
TraderZones, Do you have a way for a trader to dump his trading info into Excel and calculate his sharpe ratio? Cheers!!
Totally depends on what format the trading info is in: text file, html/web page, proprietary reports, etc. For realtime results, your broker(s) may have a way for you to export your trading history, such as for tax reporting purposes. I would give them a call and find a knowledgeable person and discuss with them your desire to download your trade history so you can analyze it.