Thought more about what you said: "don't bet more than you can lose on a single trade". Thing is ALL my money was in VTI. And, with the current market conditions, I feel I have a stronger chance of losing money in it than day trading.
One last though for you (and it's a big one.)
Are you going to FIRE? Or are you just trying to make a buck?
The thing is, most everyone on this forum is a long term investor. Doesn't matter if we have everything allocated to ETF's, Stocks, Bonds, Real estate. We believe that if we give up a buck today, tomorrow we can get 10. The LONG game = a winning game more often then not this has been proven many times. By NOT investing in an ETF like VTI, your risking a lot.
Lets take today, May 13, 2009. The market is crashing, personally I think it's kinda funny but I am weird. You could probably day trade by shorting the market, and walk away with ahead quite a bit but i am betting your not going to do that.
As for VTI (as of this moment per Seeking Alpha) it's down 2.4%. IF you had just invested Friday you would be down. However, your not losing money. Why? Cause you didn't sell. Hell, it might drop another 40% and you STILL would not have lost money. BUT you know what you would have? An opportunity to buy cheap stock, or in my case, cheap income as I prefer dividends, either way if you just wait, you will gain back that theoretical 42.3% drop + what was paid by the dividends (all reinvested of course).
Now lets take your day trading. You kept your losses at oh, lets say 2% max per trade. Over the entire period the market drops (for that theoretical 40% drop), you would have lost how much REAL money? My guess is at least several thousand. And you can't even claim that loss on your taxes, Thanks IRA! You can argue that you'll get it back plus more on the way up. Sure. Lets say you do that and come out ahead slightly, cause your gifted....
But let me factor 1 more issue in the equation. Time spent. For the ETF you might have spent a whole what.... 30 minutes dealing with the ETF if your doing this all manually. But for your day trading you spent days worth of time watching screens, looking for signals, etc.
Which way lost more money when all is said in done. Day Trading, why? Time = Money.
Now it's clear your going to day trade. And while we can't tell you what to do with your money, I (and I assume everyone else reading this thread) would like to plead with you to invest MOST of your money back in to VTI or some equivalent. We won't stop you from day trading, but IF you really want to FIRE or at least FI, you need to play the long game.
Also I believe someone already posted it else where, but see the worst market timer ever and see how they did. They could have retired VERY nicely, despite always getting in RIGHT before the market crashes.
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2014/02/worlds-worst-market-timer/ (One of may of the same article all over the web)
Also ChpBstrd is comparing your day trading to casino. He's got the right of it. You won on your first slot machine. Go ahead, keep playing. BUT know that eventually you will lose. Again, this is WHY you should invest in to VTI (or equivalent) so you don't lose it all.