Just from the numbers you've given I'd say you are not in a position to quit, especially if you have responsibilities to a family. I would put together a strategy, say plan to work another 5 years, and during this time save every possible cent, make sure your strategies are bulletproof and try to get more capital from other sources. In five years revisit the question.
I understand your wanting to trade full-time, But you might want to take a more realistic and conservative approach.. I'm just throwing ideas around for you to think about but.. How is your family doing? have kids? how old? do they need the stability of you having a full-time job? Whats the risk reward for trading full-time? (maybe make good money, freedom, be your own boss sorta thing vs. Losing alot of money, family suffers, debt, blah blah blah..
He knows this because nearly ALL successful traders average down and also realize that stop orders are a joke!
Because if you had an account large enough to withstand averaging down strategies/trading without stops/moving stops further away, you wouldn't have a day job. And if you were trading a system with fixed rules for trade setup qualification, entries, profit targets and protective stops (such as Geez does), trading larger size wouldn't require "guts" or induce fear that with larger size on you'd take profits too soon or be unwilling to cut a loss. It would be exactly the same as what you're doing now, but with larger quantity. Take your $5K a month and save it for 5 years.
At 5k to 10k per month...highly recommended you pay down (get rid of) a ton of those debt commitments (auto, credit cards, lower the mortgage and any other creditors). In addition, save up at least 1 - 2 years of income to equal your salary at your other job. This saved income is to be put away in a special account at your bank and cannot be used as part of your trading capital. It's to be used to maintain your current lifestlye. Further, if you can take a leave of absence from your job to test full-time trading...do it and make sure your spouse knows how you're doing (good or bad) so that she won't freak out the day you decided to quit your job if/when you reach that point. Also, whatever payment schedule you're on with your job...continue that payment schedule with your trading profits if/when you decide to quit your job. Last of all, if you're not comfortable in increasing your position size...don't do it until you're ready because most traders don't have family commitments and don't understand the psychological barrier involved in increasing position size when profitable even if it doesn't violate any of your money management rules. Therefore, do it very slowly over a one year period and not in one day. As soon as problems arise...immediately go back to your prior position size instead of increasing the bet in an effort to make back prior losses. The point is that when you go full-time...trading becomes a business and like any other business while supporting a family...how you run the business is often impacted via what's going on in your family. P.S. I'm a full-time trader and I support my family. If you have any problems or questions about how to manage your new change in life after quitting your job...pm me for advice even though I quit my job to go full-time about 8 years prior to starting a family. Mark
What exactly are you after here? Other people to give you help, support? YOU should know what to do.... The real question is why are you asking this question? FEAR...know you can't or will not do it?
I very much agree with the advice to pay down debt. Having no debt takes a lot of pressure off, and lowers your income needs. And if you are really making $5 to $10K consistently, paying down debt and growing your trading account should be easy enough to do over a couple years at most. I would see how it goes over this time.
If you don't mind me asking, what are you trading (i.e. stocks, futures, options, currency?) And what is the absolute min starting balance needed to be at that level? What are your risk settings? i.e. is it possible to lose everything in a single trade or is the loss always limited?