Taking a Break from Trying to Make a Million in a Day

I had a horrible day yesterday: I didn't follow my advice. I should have stayed out or stayed long. I went short a few times but got out before the account was totally destroyed. I made back a 1/3 of the losses today. From now on, I'm going to stop forcing things so much. I can do a fairly good job of making $200 a day and should just be happy with that right now. When I push for higher returns I end up getting screwed (for the most part), especially when I do it during announcements, against positive news, etc...

Taking a break from trying to make a million in a day. Heh.

Update: I think I might do better if I opened my own account to trade futures and eventually stocks. One reason I push so hard is because if I make $200 a day, I get $20 at my 10% commission rate. That just doesn't feel like a lot, and really not enough to make up for the trouble of earning someone else $180. The incentives are all off. Because of that I end up trying to push for $500 or $1k a day and end up, for the most part, coming way to close to falling, or falling. There are reasons I cannot make those high amounts, the main being my money management setup isn't made for the pattern day trade rules, and I can make $500 or $1k easier with stocks than futures.

I'm saving up the $4k necessary for a futures account at Think or Swim (hoping to use their software under the commission schedule of another broker). Once I break $5k I'll think about getting an account with a prop firm. There are some pretty cool trading firms out there that would allow me 50k-100k (and sometimes more) in capital to trade. Also, with them I can get in and out whenever I want: a few shares here and there or my entire bankroll. That's the freedom I would like to have on my current account.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes. I have about $2k of the money needed for the futures account. I have some bonds and stuff saved in the bank too--not sure how much. I'm checking it all out to put it together for a decent starting account.