Is $5,000 enough to get started with trading?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am reviewing all of them and related links and so forth.

Do you think it is almost certain I will lose the 5K considering the following.

While I know nothing about Day Trading other than what I have read here and in a book I bought last week "a beginner's guide to day trading online" by Toni Tuner, I do have a good fundamental knowledge of business.

I have run my own small business for 20 years (it is failing now due to external circumstances I have no control over)

I have an MBA from a local University but it was earned 15 years ago so it is alittle dated.

I have occasionally bought stocks long (about 10 times) and only lost money on one trade. My strategy was contrarian. For example I bought Apple computer when it was trading at $6 dollars a few years ago because even though their earnings where down and the future looked bleak I knew that either the Government or Microsoft would step in and save them because if they failed that would leave Microsoft open to be clobbered as a monopoly. As it turned out Microsoft did intervene but still got clobbered. I made a great return but had to wait 6 months to cash out. If I had the time now to buy and wait I would be watching for chip makers to bottom out and then buy one.

I can tell day trading is totally different.

The one thing that appeals to me is that you can win money immediately. I am not looking to "get rich". Just earn a somewhat steady and reliable income weekly or daily.

Will my background help things at all or does the future appear bleak?

Whatever happens, as a token of my appreciation for the input I have received here I will post all my transactions here on elitetrader until the 5K is gone or I have doubled it. So you can watch the gazelle hurdle the lions and tigers or get eaten alive!

Ken
 
Quote from abogdan:

A little bit of history.

I started in 1990 with 5K. Lind-Waldock account with $30 commissions per trade. Back in the days! I've lost it all. Did learn something though! Borrowed 10K (never ever, ever, ever do it!) Lost it too! Got the margin call on 10 contracts of Canadian Dollar. Borrowed another 10K. Learned a lot!!! Quit trading for 2 years, worked 3 jobs, 18 hours a day to pay the loan back. Read a lot of books, bought a lot of courses. Started trading again. Broke even in my first year. Learned some more! Bought Trade Station, eSignal etc. started to develop my own systems. Made 10K profit in 1994! Went back and spent 1 year trading and studying. Made my first 25K profit in 1996. Working day job and trading in between. Built my first system and made 92K in 1999! Never looked back since. So, i did start with 5K. Took me over 13 years to learn how to trade. You decide now!
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Assuming this is true, excellent story...

Congrats on sticking with it and going profitable..
 
Quote from icantoday:

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am reviewing all of them and related links and so forth.

Do you think it is almost certain I will lose the 5K considering the following.

While I know nothing about Day Trading other than what I have read here and in a book I bought last week "a beginner's guide to day trading online" by Toni Tuner, I do have a good fundamental knowledge of business.

I have run my own small business for 20 years (it is failing now due to external circumstances I have no control over)

I have an MBA from a local University but it was earned 15 years ago so it is alittle dated.

I have occasionally bought stocks long (about 10 times) and only lost money on one trade. My strategy was contrarian. For example I bought Apple computer when it was trading at $6 dollars a few years ago because even though their earnings where down and the future looked bleak I knew that either the Government or Microsoft would step in and save them because if they failed that would leave Microsoft open to be clobbered as a monopoly. As it turned out Microsoft did intervene but still got clobbered. I made a great return but had to wait 6 months to cash out. If I had the time now to buy and wait I would be watching for chip makers to bottom out and then buy one.

I can tell day trading is totally different.

Yes.(but not because I am judging you, its statistically true that you will fail at daytrading)

The one thing that appeals to me is that you can win money immediately. I am not looking to "get rich". Just earn a somewhat steady and reliable income weekly or daily.

Consider how you will feel if you lose money in the beginning. Will your passion to learn trading give you the endurance needed, to become a non-emotional, non gambling, button pushing data entry operator? Daytrading is not as sexy as you think.

Will my background help things at all or does the future appear bleak?

Go ahead take the step, we did, just understand what you are getting "in" to.

Whatever happens, as a token of my appreciation for the input I have received here I will post all my transactions here on elitetrader until the 5K is gone or I have doubled it. So you can watch the gazelle hurdle the lions and tigers or get eaten alive!

Atta boy!

Ken
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Michael B.
 
Quote from icantoday:

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am reviewing all of them and related links and so forth.

Do you think it is almost certain I will lose the 5K considering the following.

While I know nothing about Day Trading other than what I have read here and in a book I bought last week "a beginner's guide to day trading online" by Toni Tuner, I do have a good fundamental knowledge of business.

I have run my own small business for 20 years (it is failing now due to external circumstances I have no control over)

I have an MBA from a local University but it was earned 15 years ago so it is alittle dated.

I have occasionally bought stocks long (about 10 times) and only lost money on one trade. My strategy was contrarian. For example I bought Apple computer when it was trading at $6 dollars a few years ago because even though their earnings where down and the future looked bleak I knew that either the Government or Microsoft would step in and save them because if they failed that would leave Microsoft open to be clobbered as a monopoly. As it turned out Microsoft did intervene but still got clobbered. I made a great return but had to wait 6 months to cash out. If I had the time now to buy and wait I would be watching for chip makers to bottom out and then buy one.

I can tell day trading is totally different.

The one thing that appeals to me is that you can win money immediately. I am not looking to "get rich". Just earn a somewhat steady and reliable income weekly or daily.

Will my background help things at all or does the future appear bleak?

Whatever happens, as a token of my appreciation for the input I have received here I will post all my transactions here on elitetrader until the 5K is gone or I have doubled it. So you can watch the gazelle hurdle the lions and tigers or get eaten alive!

Ken
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Don't do it Ken.

From what you have written here, I ASSURE you that you are not ready to "day trade", if you are doing this from your home and without some kind of mentor.

Your university MBA tells me that you are an intelligent person. Making money day trading takes more than mere intelligence. Takes a long time (years) to learn how to compete in the market on a "day trade" basis.
 
Quote from BSAM:

Don't do it Ken.

From what you have written here, I ASSURE you that you are not ready to "day trade", if you are doing this from your home and without some kind of mentor.

Your university MBA tells me that you are an intelligent person. Making money day trading takes more than mere intelligence. Takes a long time (years) to learn how to compete in the market on a "day trade" basis.
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Second that! If you want, paper trade and post your results. We will be happy to help.
 
You can day trade with $5k or less with an offshore broker because they do not have to follow NASD trading rules. I use www.alldaytraders.com

I have used them for about 4 months now and have not had any problems. I only have about $6k in my account with them and I get 4 to 1 margin and day trade multiple times everyday with them.

The only other way you can do it (day trade) with that little is through a prop firm.
 
Quote from misctrader:

nononsense,

thanks for the compliments. However, I like to add that in NO WAY do I say that $5K is sufficent for you to make a living or get rich or even pay your bills!

But if you are so new, then perhaps it's best to plan out what you are going to do. But I know you wouldn't anyhow. So, go ahead and plunk down the $5K and lose it so you'll know how hard trading is.

And even if you are an expert trader, $5K is not enough to live off! But I'm saying an expert trader can generate minimal cash flow from even a $5K acct that a newbie will flush out in weeks.

What is the right amt to generate a living? It all depends on many factors - trading skills, types of instruments, risk mgmt, position sizing, types of volatility,etc.

But $5K is unlikey to be that number...
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Of course misctrader, you would have a hard time to live of $5K. However I understood the question as a bit more theoretical and started from the famous: " if you know what you are doing".

Be good,

nononsense
 
Shot a couple of lions today :D but then one jumped out of the bush and gnawed on me slightly - had to scramble back to the land rover.
 
How did you do it, use the gazelle as bait?
:p


Quote from plumlazy:

Shot a couple of lions today :D but then one jumped out of the bush and gnawed on me slightly - had to scramble back to the land rover.
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hey you don't have a Hummer yet?

Michael B.


Quote from plumlazy:

Shot a couple of lions today :D but then one jumped out of the bush and gnawed on me slightly - had to scramble back to the land rover.
More...
 
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