It's a lot more complicated... nothing to do with % of account, that is too loose.
It's all about scaling and dynamic position sizing. With super tight stops and wide range clean/tight strong consistent charts usually in the $15 - $40/share range, with volume at least 15k/minute for liquidity.
Start small size eg I usually start with tiny 20 - 50 share trades and martingale/add from there.
Example: I just banked 7k profit this past two weeks daytrading and swing trading TVIX SQQQ UVXY etc. All positions were built 20-50 shares at a time, scaling up and down, several hundred small trades.
I had red days up to 500ish and green days as profitable as 2k. I paid zero attention to %ages, lots of attention to cost basis per share and total $ of capital per position.
Successful trading like this is ALL about minimizing upfront risk to absolute tiny as possible, with tiny initial positions way under 1%.
(That is why I abhor the bullshxt so called daytrading young jerks running chatrooms supposedly trading 1000 or more shares at a time of cheap stocks they frontrun, that is total orchestrated phony bs.)
Plus its useful to get good at recognizing overbought and oversold charts.... eg though I'm sure SQQQ TVIX UVXY etc will soon continue up, I decided to cash out today since they ran up quickly and risk of them pulling back on Monday is at least as high as a continuation. I only trade when I have a clear edge with rockstar setups like TVIX was when I alerted my members for long entry setup once it broke out over $41 earlier.
Instead, learn how to trade small, trade safe. And no, none of us are going to become instant million dollar traders or achieve financial freedom quickly or turn tiny accounts into six figures or be right 80% of the time, that is bs.
For risk mgmt I use 40cents max for open range breakout scalps (meaning if I buy 50 shares at $20.40 per share I stop out if it goes down to $20), and whole number + hod/lod and prior day s/r levels etc.
Bonus tip: never use margin til you're somewhat consistent in a cash account, and don't trade cash til after you're consistent in sim/demo.
Trading is a grind and hard as fxck. #truth