I think you are doing it backwards. Start with swing trading until you make enough to day trade. My experience and mine only, is that futures are tougher to trade than stocks and swing trading is easier than day trading.
I use a gambling mentality to trade. From one moment to the next I have no clue whether I go to profit or loss. Regarding backtesting, some methods are impossible to test, like my system, it cannot be backtested. How do I know it has an edge? By the results, been trading + 30 years so by now know what does or doesn't work, but just persevere, it gets easier and better with time.
'fraid not, why would anyone think to do that with internet strangers? But it definitely is a gambling system, every day I get whacked but it's worth it, most couldn't trade it as the the whacking is relentless but like anything, where most don't tread there's a niche to exploit. My system doesn't trade traditional TA or FA, neither chart based, it's numbers based, think roulette wheel with knife blades.
ES is a lot of leverage-Bond. Currently bond of 13.2K per contract. So you should have that +a few K as a buffer. The alternative is Micro-ES at 10:1. A lot of professionals use ES for various reasons. It could be a very tough place to start, but I did and use it now. Mostly because I find the liquidity I want. As or 24 hours, check out the volume. There are times it is really dead. Many systems fall apart when the volume is very low. Capital risk by percent needs to be adjusted for your instruments and expected draw downs. They need to sort of sync. up. 1-2% PER trade at risk is relative to how much you risk and the trade fluctuation. ES type leverage changes all that a lot. Overall, I would skip this part for now. Work on a system and find something, or a combination of things that work for you and then figure out how you would actually trade it. Overall, reasonable start but probably top of the first inning, second batter up. I would suggest creating a measurement system for your system. Use that measurement system while you test your system. A lot of people create a system, and no real measurement system. Cheers
While trading, you might not be able to find out if the trade will come out to be profitable or not. It all comes with experience.
You need to write a good trading plan. And how to do it? You need to keep a diary of transactions and enter all your transactions on paper trading there. Then find the most successful setups and add them to your trading plan. And then trade it. And what if a losing day? I just stop trading as soon as I hit the set daily loss. And the next day I start all over again. I’m not doubling in any way - it’s impossible, it’s like fighting the market and gambling. I just start the day over, since there was nothing yesterday. I have a plan, and I repeat it in cold blood. At first I had nervous breakdowns, I thought that I was smarter and should win back. And now I just make my plan every day, as if nothing had happened. If I lose several days in a row, I rest, go for a walk. And then again, as if nothing had happened.