Jack Rabid, what everyone is trying to tell you in so many words is that
1. it is difficult to make money without having first paid for your apprenticeship with losses (thus likely wiping out your present capital)
2. it is difficult even after you have learned what to do because knowing what to do is one thing. Actually doing it (i.e. acting on the signals) is something else again. Learning to trade is a long process.
3. The expenses (cost of the data, software, books etc) are ongoing and high in relation to your (presently) available capital.
Making it near enough impossible in my opinion to come out on top with living money.
The best way to learn is to
1. study first, do not trade immediately.
2. get a mentor (but how would you know whether the person is telling the truth about his prowess ?)
3. get a job in the mean time and save some further working capital
I would hazard a guess that most people on this (and any other) board are not making a living at trading. Yes, they have a passion for it and like to discuss it, no doubt about it.
I am not trying to discourage you, just trying to convey to you the reality of the situation.
Once you have obtained some insight about trading, email me and I may just provide you with a method of selecting trades. (No guarantees given).
Be carefull with the books you buy, many books ard courses are a way of murdering your money.
I am actually suggesting that your first year or so should be spent learning rather than to try to make money by trading.
(Yeh, I KNOW you are impatient. Everyone is when first starting out.
How to get a job ? Hard to tell as we don't know about your skills. Presumably you had a job once as you have managed to gather $ 5 K sofar (no mean feat).
Yet by no means sufficient to pay for your ongoing expenses AND earn a living by trading (let alone building up your capital).
There ARE jobs out there and that is where your $ 5K comes in handy as it will allow you to feed yourself whilst you work at a job which pays you commission only (which takes some time in coming in).