Even if the business is viable many small business are dependent on the founding owners experience, expertise and contacts.
to be blunt with you, you are in denial and contradicting yourself. if you want to be a trader, you have to be a risk taker. if you don't/can't take risks, then you shouldn't even consider being a trader. no firm will hire you based on what you've described about yourself. sorry for harsh words but it is what it is.
I think you have a chance, that, a trader taking very little risk. the only way you can achieve this is to have a proven strategy. I am speaking of this from my own experience. I have a phd in science, and bored with my previous job seeing glass ceilings. I decided to pursue trading in 2003. at first, I did not start trading as other rookie traders usually do. instead, I started to build trading strategies and backtested them, fully used my skills in science and computer programming. after I found a strategy, I started to trade. from the day I started trading, I had no losing month in 4.5 years by now. the max DD is less than 0.5%. the total return is 1500%. in your case, you need to spend time to search for a trading system , and the system must be backtested either manually or by computer robots, but must be in a rigorous way. I know it is hard, and few are patient to do that. most choose to enjoy the joy of playing and losing.
Some thoughts: Utilise longer time frames 100% a year for 5 years compounded on $30k = almost $1 million
50+ , know options, traded (albeit unsuccessfully), science masters I would look into being a sales rep or demo guy for a software vendor. Look into rts, orc, tt, optioncity, actant, murex, summit, endur, blah blah blah
Thanks all. However, my post was asking your advises in getting a trader job, not asking what other jobs I can do. I always enjoy challenging, which I find option trading is. You can always learn and find new strategies in option trading. I am convinced that trading is the job I want to do in the rest of my life. Being unfamiliar with the financial trading industry, I was asking your advises to avoid making mistakes to waste my time and money. So far the most important advise I got here was avoiding to go to prop firm. I'll appreciate other advises on how to stay in full time trading with limited capital --- sound silly, but I really have to know.......
somewhere, if you're able to gain 20% per month, you could compound it and reach 800% in one year. even 10% per month would net you 312% in one year. Unless you're only making .02% per month resulting in about 20% a year? then you need better working methods.
Your math on this seems a little off (I think you mean 2% per month rather than .02%/month??), but regardless, anyone making 20% a month consistently probably isn't going to start a thread like this. The OP at one point said he "expects" 20-30% a year, which I would also guess is wishful thinking. The point being, it's common to have dreams and all that, but a big problem with do-it-yourself trading is that a lot of people really mess up their lives attempting it when they've got a family to support. (Even high-salaried prop traders at bulge-bracket firms manage to overspend when times are good and ultimately mess up in a similar fashion -- and they are almost always starting from a much better position.)