My only 'savings' was my money in my account. If i don't have a job, but still have to pay a mortgage, car payment, insurance, internet, gas, food, two pets, student loans, support girlfriend without job, etc. I need to get the money from somewhere and that's where I took it. Then I got a job, leaving me with no money to fiddle around with. Indeed, I did make 350% my last month of trading, and that was when I was a PDT! Now imagine if I wasn't! I am 25 yrs old and have been through the ringer my whole first year and a half of trading. I use my own strategy and no one else's.
First, you obviously need to put some money together in order to start trading. $30k shouldn't be all that hard. But if you are barely even earning that much, obviously you need to cut expenses to near zero. And yet, you are paying a mortgage. You are making car payments! Why not just buy a rusty old $300 beater and own it outright, and only carry liability insurance? That would cut your transportation costs by 2/3 or more. You are paying for internet? This isn't the 90's any more. Gas? can't help there with any ideas except walk more. Kinda stupid to drive to work if you live less than an hour's walk away. Groceries? Backpack and sneakers instead of car. Etc etc other things. Pets? You can't even support yourself, and still raise up an account in a timely manner. Wait til you get a big vet bill. GF without job? I guess priorities are priorities. You have to make a decision, which apparently you have already made, and then live with it. Student loans? Sure, you got to pay them off. The fact that going to college on credit is a bad investment for most kids is besides the point, and water under the bridge. I made $90k last year and I never finished high school. Now I am retired at 60 even though historically I have always blown my money on crazy foolish wasteful stuff. Which BTW you cannot do so don't follow my example. Anyway no, your decisions have not been bad. But they are incompatible with quickly accumulating $30k to trade with unless you are earning twice that or more. The only thing I will shake a finger at, is GF not working and you being her only means of support. But again that is your personal decision. The thing is, how do you expect to save $30k if you are living that close to hand-to-mouth that one month of unemployment would cause you to draw out your trading account? The only way is to cut expenses to near zero for a year or two, or else double your income without increasing your spending.
Saving $30k requires discipline if you are not a power earner. It requires sacrifices. Most people today simply don't find the sacrifices to be worth it. That's okay. But no sense getting an ulcer over the desire to have it along with the desire to keep having the things that have to be given up in order to have it.
My suggestion is to save and INVEST $1k a month. Most people can manage that. It might not be easy but it is usually POSSIBLE, in the same sense that for a coyote with his paw in a trap might find it POSSIBLE to chew his foot off and escape. Or a climber with a fallen boulder pinning his hand to amputate his wrist with his pocketknife. So it still can be painful. The saving, not the foot chewing or DIY surgery. But back to the $1k/month. Invest for the expectations of the next three years. Even a 4% return annually gives you about $39k to work with at the end of 3 years. The thing is, you must make this your highest priority if you expect to do this and meet a deadline. If it is not your priority then it simply will not happen.
Or... if you are really a great trader, open an offshore account in the amount of $1k or so, with CMEG or some other brokerage, with no PDT restriction and 6x margin but $6.95/trade commission. Make only one or two in/out trades per day and make them count. You can't make 20 trades a day... the commissions will break you very quickly. Take chances. Go high risk for high rewards. When you have doubled that initial $1k, pull out the profit and invest. Double your $1k again. This time pull out half of it to invest and trade with $1k, continuing to bet out strong on high reward plays. Double that $1500 and take out $1k to invest and keep trading hard with $2k. Double that, and trade with $3k. Double it again, and trade with $4k, keeping your invested money greater than trading funds. If you blow up, you still have your investment. Reseed the trading account with $1k from your investment portfolio. When you have made your $30k, open a US brokerage account. If you really are a skilled trader, you should have your $30k nut made in a year. If you are not, you will be broke in a few days and be reseeding out of your next paycheck. BUT... you will still have a few thou invested. Sweet, huh?
Another option is to go small with a US broker, and your choices, trading stocks, are either margin account with PDT restriction, or cash account. In a cash account, your money for selling a stock is not available for buying more stock until funds have "settled", I think 3 days. And of course you have no margin. Which is better? Honestly I am not sure but I went with a margin account with IB.
FINALLY.... yeah it is cool to day trade stocks. Potentially very profitable, in reality usually not, though it is fun for most of us. Investing isn't very glamorous or exciting. Watching paint dry is exponentially more stimulating. But here is the thing. Invest the maximum every year into a 401k starting in your 20's and when you are an old fart like me you will be many times a millionaire. This besides your trading profits, or in spite of your trading losses. Investing matters WAY MORE when you are young than when you are older. No sense to even begin, in your 50's. But as a youngster, it really makes a difference. TBH you should prioritize investing over trading at this stage of your life, and have fun trading later, or now, after making your proper contribution to your 401k or Roth or whatevah.
