Looking back a few years from now, you will realize this means little. But the borrowed money can take a long time, after you understand this. 90-99% of traders lose money (you and your paper trading plan are no different). But the debt and increasing interest will become a growing monkey on your back. So do you want to stop now, or learn both of these the hard way?
Good effort. Keep thinking and sorting these things out. We're sorting other stuff out too, but observing, thinking, then observing again, that is what will make you formidable. The market will exploit your current obvious weaknesses in a giffy. Patch these up first, then come to the battlefield again and take another look at Mike Tyson in his prime. Then decide if you need to go back and do more work before climbing in the ring with His Mercilessness. current outpoints lack of patience and prudence massively insufficient grubstake using credit for trading funds = taking mother-in-law on the honeymoon.
If you are talking about taking out a few thousand and trying to make it don't bother. Trading with a few thousand is an even bigger battle to overcome. I tried this for awhile but it is very hard unless you are very lucky. A couple of bad trades and your stake is in serious danger and it is hard to trade around the PDT rule. I started by taking out 32k in cc loans based over a one year period so i could escape the PDT rule,but once again I do not recommend this as it is very hard to do and involves a lot of risk if you fail. But then again with the current state of affairs with this nation you might as well do it because if you fail the worst that could happen is that Obama will bail you out and make everyone else pay for your mistakes and poor judgement
I add, what is the worst that could happen: You will have no money and qualify for every government program that will provide you a better standard of living than you would get if you actually went out and got a real job. In the end if your don't make it at least you made an effort and tried to make something for yourself. At least you took out this cc debt trying to better yourself and make money rather using it to by big screen TV's and other shit that you knew you would never able to pay back. I say go for it, Obama will provide for you even if you make nothing and contribute nothing to the country. Welcome to bailout nation slash give me something for doing absolutely nothing nation. Everyone that works hard and actually pay taxes and works will continue to pay for you to chase pipe dreams with no real consiquences in the end.
Credit and OPM make sense if you're talking about huge sums that otherwise you would never be able to come by. Putting a couple of thousand dollars on a credit card or trading a few thousand dollars of some friends so that you don't have to get a second part-time job and save for a few months are not worth the inherent risks and reflect that you're simply looking for a shortcut. My EUR 0.02.
(1) OP has zero track record making money trading... No matter how artfully he spins it. (2) OP should keep working and save $50K or whatever... Because no one has ever bootstrapped $5K into a trading career... No matter how much BS you read on the internet. (3) Once he has $50K, OP should quit is job jobs... And make a TOTAL commitment to trading. (4) If you can make money trading over time... It's OK to max out your credit cards (see #3).
Do you realize that you can have a strategy with an edge and even so solely based on the lack of capital still lose? Not sure what market you are applying the strategy against, but in anything I trade a couple thousand dollar stake would put my risk of ruin at better than 50%, even if my edge was better than 0.15. Rather than seek approval on a board why not learn what the likelihood of success would be based on probabalistic models that have a basis in truth?
A smart solution would be to take out a loan that you can pay off from your income. I wouldn't count on trading profits to pay it off - sim trading and the real deal are two different animals. Every little set back would put you in crises and possibly affect your trading. Cut down expenses. Make min. payments and put the rest in high yield savings so that at the end of the one year loan you can pay it off. Then, your trading acct. is yours. The days of 0% no fee cc loans are over. But you should be able to get 0% with a 3-5% fee. That's still a pretty expensive loan - you wouldn't want to tack on large interest charges after the promotional rate is over - pay it off. If you're young, then just having the discipline to accomplish this bodes well for future financial success. You'll earn peanuts in the savings acct. and probably not do nearly as well as you think trading. I wouldn't worry about it - you may learn how to handle money better - something that surprisingly few people do.
If you are sure you are that good I recommend trying it out with a $500 spreadbet account. With minmum bets it will take a while to lose the lot or ( miracles can happen ) you will have no need to borrow a penny. GO FOR IT