No pain, no gain. You either cut down on expenses. You go find a side job. Or if you are so lucky, your wife can find a job. So the expenses are covered in this initial phase, and you can built up your account without the monthly withdrawal. If you are average 8% per month, and you can compound that. By the 2nd year, your account should be close to $160K-$180K. And if you can keep that up for a few years, then 8% of your balance is going to look much bigger...and then it won't be a problem with covering costs. There is a reason why many day traders join prop firms, they get the high leverage.
with all due respect everyone, but this thread originated in 2010, wasn't it? and we are still hot at it in 2016? man, to sum up in a few sentences: yes, it can be done with traders who have proper variable tools to trade with, not talking about huge sums as several eluded to here either. if a trader can not show sustained profitability with one or two contracts, why on earth does he/she want to take on 4, 8, 10 contracts to show his/her utter disregards for his/her own liquidity? the tools mentioned being: proper setups. in all reality, that is really all a trader needs to be consistently profitable with sustainability. we all won't, would we, drive from nyc to lax at the exact same speed all the way, even passing through scenic kansas, nebraska, idaho et al.... then comrades, we are doing much more than just driving leisurely along, we are trying to get in and out as expediciously as we can, with as much profit as our setups tell us to take.... 8% - 10% per month cash on cash return? and many of my trading friends here are saying that it is rather humanly practically virtually impossible to attain....? i would humbly second that wise observation indeed! with only one qualification though.... it is absolutely impossible to get the 8% - 10% monthly return cash on cash, FOR MORE THAN 95% OF TRADERS (no insult of any kind intended here, ok).... but for the rest of the mostly unknown trading community members, i am certain there are a few unknown or do not wish to be bothered with, traders among us here, who constitude the rest of the equation; the 8-10% can be attained without too much stress and strain within a day, a few days or a week at most; under normal trading environs. submitted with utmost humility with many many agonizing trading days and evening sessions before to prove it with. the attachment is only for personal entertainment which has no commercial trading value of any kind, implied or otherwise. so what is the cash return for this one instrument within one trading session on 2016-01-14, my last trading day for last week, i only trade mon to thurs sessions? trading comrades, pls do not allow other good will and good intended traders delimit your very own trading potentialities, sky is really not the limit either; but your very own greeds will most probably ruin you and most probably everyone of us who is not contended nor happy with only 1% return per trading session!