You can trade Futures with 10 - 20Grand and have a nice amount of BP, more than..........just enough rope to hang yourself quickly! Rotsa Ruck!
Yes, u need a decent amount of capital to be or become profitable. Obviously not to trade size but in order to give yourself room to maneuver: scale in and out, hedge, and to survive the series of running losses u are bound to experience. if u cant make money with one lot for sure u cannot make any with 100's or 1000's. On the contrary u'll be most likely unable to handle that size and will be exposed to larger drawdowns form which you'll find it very hard to recover.