It's possible if you spend years beforehand analysing charts and devising a strategy, you can grow from $5K to making a living trading cryptos or FX. I wouldn't back you to do it but it is possible. You could also invest it in a portfolio of cryptos after a big correction like we've just seen. That's probably your best bet if you want to get involved quicker.
Yes it is possible, but it is much harder to earn a living on a small account than it is on a larger one. Also it largely depends on how much you need to live on, of course.
I say that if you are a good trader with lots of experience, you can make a living with about 50,000 USD in your account. So if you start with a 5,000 USD account you would have to grow it first to about 50,000 USD, which will take plenty of time, unless you take crazy amounts of risk. Even if you are extremly good and make no big mistakes, it might still take you about 5 years to grow those initial 5,000 USD into 50,000 USD, with which you might then trade for a living. Why not earn some starting capital with a regular job or some small business ? I see that you are from the US, I guess if you are serious and disciplined you could make those additional 40-50k within 1-2 years, and then you could start trading for real, without the problem of being completly undercapitalized.
If an experienced and disciplined trader had a liquidity crises due to say a legal or medical issue which wiped out his liquidity it could be done but the pressure would be high. For a beginner, it would be an extreme long shot but not impossible. Of course this would apply for futures or forex not stocks. You would not qualify for PDT or it's 4x1 leverage with that little. In a futures account, you would not be putting 5k to work but over 100k on a trade given leverage on one contract of an index future.
It is possible. On Mondays you buy ATM weekly SPY calls, 1/4 of your account size. On most weeks they return 200-500%, on some weeks they got wiped out. Over all still positive expectancy.
This - exactly. To say more or less the same thing at much greater length (my forte ), it's perhaps possible for someone who ... (i) is already familiar with all the details and practicalities of both risk-management generally and specifically trade-management s/he's going to need, and is in this sense more or less an expert to start with (that's a really tall order, because statistics and probability are counterintuitive subjects to most people, but it could be achieved by someone with all the appropriate education in the first place, who then practices on demo for thousands of hours, before starting); (ii) has a genuine, proven edge that lasts (this implies having all the skills to develop, identify and analyze it); (iii) has real patience and discipline, realistic expectations of what's achievable and over what time-scale, and few-to-no emotions around financial matters; (iv) has enough to live on without withdrawing anything from the trading account until after it's built up a lot; and ... (v) has many years over which to achieve it. But take away any one of those five preconditions, and no: it's almost certainly not going to be possible.
Is this another theoretical, hypothetical, hindsight trading scenario by Pekelo...or have you personally done this and are now rich, But to answer his question...yea, it is possible to turn a $5,000 trading account into a living, livable wage. -- And not within 10 or 40 years either. I mean in the relatively now now. Anything is possible in the market trading....so long as if you have the skill and experience and wisdom and know-how. Don't confuse Possible with Probable though. The average Joe can't be Superman, we all can't be Super Heros at the end of the day. I feel like Sweet and Sour for lunch today, one of the tastiest things on earth. I feel gay, or not manly, wearing alligator shoes and fancy European labels. I bought a new smartphone yesterday, my very first one ever....and I kind of hate the experience. Call me old fashioned, but I like my Windows laptop with attached full-sized keyboard and mouse.