Sorry, my reply to surf wasn't directed to your comments about account size but more to the people who say it's impossible to trade with less than 250,000 etc.
Ok, thanks for the clarification and I've seen those comments too elsewhere online about 250k or 1 million dollar requirements. If such a law ever passed...most retail traders wouldn't be able to trade. Heck, I still remember all the stock traders that got hit with that "pattern day trader" rule when it first was adopted. Most of those particular stock traders simply moved over to futures because futures doesn't have such a rule. Note: Till this date, I do not know why that "pattern day trading" rule was never applied to futures. Thus, trying to determine how much a specific trader should be trading with is very tricky because the broker would need to have access to very detailed private information about their potential new client beyond just getting their name address, SSN number to determine if they have a criminal record that involves trading or computer crime. Also, like the pattern day trader rule to came about after those congressional hearings...traders may just find a loop hole and move elsewhere so that they can continue trading as cheaply as possible. Its a flaw in the system and I really don't have any suggestion on how someone like a broker, data provider, Al Brooks, charting service or any other trading related service (e.g. Yahoo Finance, Stocktwits) can ensure that their users even passes a basic risk assessment prior to doing business with that person. That's why I say its solely our responsibility to ensure we should be trading. Nobody can do that for us.