Day trading profit target

My target today was $500. I made $511, on just TQQQ, nothing else, one buy and one sale. Not bad for a micro-size account, right? But it was a logical expectation, one that relied on price and volume action and patterns. My target, or my P/L goal I should say, depends on my expectations from recent and present price action, mostly. My target for any single position depends on that and also on logical and recent historical levels of resistance and support. It could be $100. It could be $800. It could be $40. Five $40 wins on an 8k account add up to a reasonably good day. If I can't reasonably expect to make $100 then I have other things I could be doing, like making another batch of beer. Or just drinking some.

Now if a stock stubbornly refuses to halt it's progress into greater profit, I won't argue. I stay in until it turns around or at least goes sideways and doesn't break out again in an hour. If it looks good for a gap up, or a stable overnight and a morning surge, I stay in and I don't really have a target anymore, just a stop loss figure.
 
VicBee said:
I measure my trading goals against investment opportunities in the real world, simply because if I can't beat those then I might as well put my money with them.
For example, the highest investment return I've found happens to be my 401k which is on fire, with +50% returns this year so far. While I cannot put my money in that plan (retired early), my high challenge is to match or beat it but I'd be satisfied with an after-tax +30% return, which is a low 6 figure income.
I'm a basic stock trader, sometimes day trading, sometimes holding weeks to get my numbers. I'm under no pressure to close at the end of the day. But I have a high win rate and low value losses that I attribute mostly to inexperience. 80% of my trades are on a single stock while the remaining 20% is split among 2-3 others. So far I've been lucky although I've also missed some opportunities, but I'm on target for beating my goals.
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The year is far from over and much can happen between now and December, but I'm on target to beat my 401k to the finish.
 
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