a 20-pip daily goal sounds modest until 2pm

[Shadow Trader]

Daily targets look gentle on paper. 20 pips, or 1% a day, sounds easy. Then it's 2pm, the day sits at +3, and the target starts acting like a debt.

The market doesn't hand out 20 pips on demand. Some days the range offers 12 and nothing more. A trader who needs 20 on a 12-pip day has two options: force trades or enlarge size. Both are the same bet at a worse price.

Prop-style evaluations bake this in, since a challenge has a profit target and a clock. Even outside one, borrowing the daily number can turn a patient method into a quota.

The other side is odd too. Some stop dead at +20 with a clean setup staring at them.

Maybe the target belongs on a longer scale. Monthly, or per 100 trades, where variance has room to even out. Days become just days.

Which feels worse in practice, being short of the target with hours left, or hitting it early and having to sit through good setups?