On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone tends to rise if the operational an transactional costs drop to zero.
Boy, that was exciting! Unfortunately, 80% of my account is gone. Has the market always been like this? Up 500 points, down 600 points, then up 500 points? Or they did this just to get my money? Time to re-group, need more cash.
Disregard this advice re not using Sim trading and not reading books. The rest of the advice is OK, but after you open your small account, do not trade live for a long long time. Do nothing except sim trading on a good platform with real time data until your equity curve has a positive slope for months. Take two ticks profit off every profitable trade and add two ticks loss to every unprofitable sim trade. If you can make money with simulated trading under these conditions then you have a good chance to make it trading real money. Make certain your accounting takes fees and commissions into account. Completely ignore anyone who says simulated trading is not useful and advises you to just jump right in and start trading with real money. There are a lot of good traders posting on ET and after a while you will figure out who they are. You can learn much from some of them, but some play their cards close to their chest. Finally recognize that the markets involve, besides honest folks, a lot of thieves, liars, and fools, and that trading is gambling. Don't confuse it with a legitimate enterprise. Your broker is not your friend. If you start by recognizing these unsavory facts you have a chance to to make money consistently because unlike in casino gambling, in the market there are plenty of opportunities to enter trades with the odds in your favor.
Try using a demo account for at least 12 months. If you manage to make regular profit on a demo account, good to try a real account with smallest possible stakes. If you can't make profit on a demo account, it wouldn't be wise to trade on a real one.