Put $ and % aside, if you really want to be a full-time trader, all you need is passion and 100% commitment. No matter what others, including your family and friends, try to persuade you to give it up you have to stay tough, undisturbed and continue to let your passion driving you. Doing so, you'll find your 'aha moment' one day after spending enough time to work hard on it.
dickey7, I am NOT a consistent profitable day trader and probably should not be giving advice. So i will share with you some of my own lesson learns from active day trader in the future markets. 1. You have practice before using real money to trade. 2. You have to practice for at least 1-2 years so you get the experience of different market conditions. For example, I trade crude oil market, and my normal stop loss of 20-30 ticks has not been working and cause me some losses and mistakes. I have to figure it out. 3. You have to know what type of questions to ask on a forum like this. Be very specific and be appreciative. 4. Spend some time talking to active day traders not to learn what they do to make money, but how to find a trading style. 5. Open a chart with different time frames, and just stare at it a few days. 6. Be open to opinions, be open to recommendations. 7. When trading during they day, mistakes will comes. you will enter at price knowing full well you are doing wrong. Exit the trade, and get out. I loss many money this way staying in trade, knowing I enter to early or too late. 8. Journal your trades daily and your thoughts. Take screen shots. Soon you will have your own book. 9. Document atleast 200 trades and evaluate them. 10. Network and get good friends. Talk, and ask questions. My biggest mistake was blowing through all my real capital to fast, I wish I had started sim before real cash and spend the cash educating myself and recording idea and getting screen time.
Use volatility to determine your stop loss then standard risk management (position size = $ risk / stop loss)
That doesn't mesh with your statement about using 20/30 ticks though I may have misunderstood your meaning.
The setups I look for normally comes with a price action stop loss of 20-30 ticks. Now the price action stop loss of the setups are more like 40-60 ticks.