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Jeff,
If your position was too large for comfort, it was too large...period. You probably shouldn't take on any position where you can't be somewhat comfortable with it. And, in daytrading, I'm not comfortable with any position. If the position is small enough where I don't have to worry, then it's probably too small to generate any profit worth the risk.
I think that papertrading with your broker might be a bit mis-leading, too. You don't need your broker to papertrade, just do it yourself. Keep a record of your buys and sells, that's all you do. But, the pressure will not be there, not like in real trading. You won't have to worry about anything or make quick split-second decisions. You won't sweat. It just won't be realistic. You will not be subject to software or hardware problems, telephone line disconnects, problems with the broker's data servers, none of that. So, I would expect your results to be very very very much better than they would be in real life.
The problem is, I believe, that you might be successful papertrading and that might encourage you to daytrade and take real losses. I know of two very good traders, friends of mine, who got completely wiped out last week. Both blew their entire accounts in one single trade. These guys had been trading for over a year, made one very devastating trade. Both have nothing left. One still owes his broker $24k. These are real stories about real traders. Their lives are changed forever, and they will never be the same. I doubt they are the only two recent disaster stories.
Beeeeeeeeeee careful!
Good luck,
Bill
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