He is expecting to make $400....that's certainly the ceiling of what he thinks is possible...and you'd risk $800. Brilliant advice. To the original poster. First, anything is possible. Making 400 per day on a 40k account is doable, assuming you have a model or strategy for trading that will produce those results, and you are capable of trading that model with very few errors. Your best chances of accomplishing this is through short term, intraday trading. Small profits, a little more size, and enough trades to give you a good expectation. Second, please take everyone on here with a grain of salt. Some of these guys make a few good trades, or have a good month, or read a few books, and suddenly they are experts in this field. There are many capable and good traders on here, search them out, verify that the trader is truely walking the walk, then use them as a model for success. Good luck!
Let me say something about margin. A friend of mine asked me about a year ago if I would trade FX futures for him. He wanted to put 20,000 in an account and give me the password etc. I refused. He had read that he might be able to trade 5 positions overnight with 20,000 in the Euro FX. What I told him was that if he opened the account for 125,000 and did not touch it, that I would trade it for him using one lot only. He agreed, but before I would trade it, I asked him to deposit the money, then wait 2 months so that we could pull a credit bureau first and I could also interview his family members so I could determine whether or not he had borrowed the money. Once convinced he was on the up and up, I began trading the account. In the first 2 weeks, the account was up 16,000 and although we couldn't quite keep up that pace, the account is now 205,600. Not bad using one lot. Due to his aggressiveness, I have used a little bit of day( and night) trading using hourly analysis to get the account to this point. In addition , I have sold call premium( generally 2 calls to the underlying position--note my name) to subsidize the account, which actually decreases the exposure lower than 1 to 1. Margin is not necessary to successful trading.
Just a quick note-- I am advising him not to expect 400 per day, so your premise is incorrect. I would be advising him, that if he risked 800, he should at least knock down 2400. It can be less than that of of course as he trails stops closer to the trade.
These points are being given for other newbies benefit as we posters are not the only ones reading. There is nothing hilarious about my post. It's deadly serious and intended to help others. Note:this is a deadly serious business.