Learning to trade and make money makes going to college seem like it was the easiest thing you done in your life, you had direction, people to go to when you got stuck, mentors and time. Then you have paper behind you name, but in actual terms of usefulness, you get a job and they have to teach you what your job is and you wonder why did I have to waste four years of going to school, and what does school have anything to with new job, it is called reduction of the masses. I am very sure that most of those who get non-tech jobs could have graduated from high school and gone into whatever. Life is ongoing OJT, on job training. Now in trading, you have no one or very little help from anyone, and those who offer help for a price, well, like buying a used car from saleman with grease slicked back hair. If they knew how to trade, they certainly not going to be teaching others for couple grand when they could make that each day. Get the good paying day job then spend few years programming your methods, you make more with less time in longer term trading, extremely more difficult to get profitable day trading, basically you have to memorize so much and make one second decisions based on huge amount of back testing. Where most lose is taking trades when chart is screaming not to make a trade. Most newbies be profitable if they didn't take 2 losing trades a day of which were done in wrong place of Swings. Too often people let first two good trades go by then grow balls and put on next one to watch it loss cause they bought the top of the market. Good luck to you.
SS, If you only have a small amount of capital, you can try your hand at options in a cash account. IMO start with 500-1000, place a few small trades and see how it goes. First study and get yourself familiar with options pricing, and the basic greeks (Delta and Theta are all I'm concerned with).USE STOPS!!. However, before placing any trades, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. And then practice some more or you'll likely be throwing money away. T3 is a legit firm, however before joining them or any propfirm, you'll again need to study and pass the series 57 exam. Also, I believe their minimum capital requirement is 6500. You may be able to negotiate that, although I'm not sure. I make consistent cash simply buying puts and calls with various stocks I watch daily. This is only after about 3 years of extremely hard work, study, and practice. There are many others here that have been at it for much much longer with better advice for you. Do not put up all your extra cash just to trade, if you lose it, it's much harder to get back to a point to start again. I was fortunate enough to have very strong support of my friends, family, and especially my wife in order to survive my first few years and now it's paying off. Good luck in your journey and best wishes.