Basically the question is...how much money did you lose before you went profitable? Trying to see what is cheaper...a college education or a trading education. For me...I lost $40k before I started finally making money in 2008.
it took me 4 months and a low of drawdown at 3785 fees included. I had the biggest drawdown of my class, and yet I was the first one to graduate. i had a 15k turnaround that same month. I ended up 12242. I did though have a basic training class which i paid for, and later got back after graduation. So , how much did I really pay? it was their money i was trading. what college does that?
Both education costs were next to nothing... I went to university in France which is almost free and the worst drawdown I had on my initial stake at trading futures was around 2700$...
I lost 24k over 2 yrs before I became profitable... and the best education I ever had bcuz trading with real money taught me to keep my emotions under lock & key.
between 40 and 50 K before I knew what I was doing. in the beginning i thought i knew what i was doing, had no fear and easily made 500 to 1500 regularly on a trade, and surprisingly was able to guard the majority of my capital. but one year into it as my "knowledge" of trading grew and i took on different strategies, i started bleeding money. of course, these were the dumbest newbie strategies that everyone discovers i'm sure. before i knew it, i couldn't pull the trigger, i wanted to make everything back in a few trades, had panic attacks and blew out twice. after taking a break for over a year, i came back much wiser learning its all about probabilities and money management. Mark Douglas' two books were a huge help. for most newbies its not possible to make any money, if you are just starting out, trade small, protect your capital, learn the skill and eventually you'll make money. if you try and hit a home run right from the beginning as i did, you'll soon blow out and you'll have nothing to trade with.
I went with a small prop firm. The butter of the situation was there were other traders making big money using the strategy taught. You soon realize that it is not the strategy itself but the agility of the trader himherself, that makes these things work. A good risk management system couldve costed the OP far less money than 50k before the profitable turnaround. The class itself was bullshit, the idea was genius. If you teach bright kids good things, they usually will find a way. What they need is a good foundation to build ideas on, a drawdown with ample BP according to their level, a normal low commission rate , and a risk management system. altogether with good bright people and a good system, good things happen.
this was in 2005. HLV capital was a small firm which at their peak was doing 800m shares per month. This is peanuts compared to the volume we are doing now but back then this number was much more relevant. The firm blew up in mid 2006 and that was that.
I don't exactly recall, but the number is somewhere between 60k-100k. No reason to go cash until you are consistent in the simulator, brutal truth that few follow. The simulator can be a powerful tool if you treat it as cash, if you treat it as a joke or for scalping, your results won't be realistic.