Maybe there is nothing wrong with starting with $2500. In fact it may be much better than starting with $5000. With $2500 if you are good at trading with tight stops you may survive. If not you will lose your $2500. And back to the drawing board and study more. If you are good at trading with $5000 and you are good at trading with tight stops you may survive, if not you will lose your $5000 and then it's back to the drawing board and study more. Odds of losing $2500 probably 90%+ Odds of losing $5000 probably 90%+ Taking this into consideration maybe? starting with $2500 is better. Just a thought.
If you have not traded index futures before then it doesn't really matter if you start with 5k or 2,500 because either amount will not last, it will be lost. If you already can trade then it also doesn't really matter either because you'll be making money most days and just increasing the balance each week.
wow...just found this thread. Interesting to see how i thought almost 3 years ago. Where am i at now? Graduated college, probably going back to do a masters in accounting, i refuse to do sales at a bank which is all i'm getting offered atm. I came to the conclusion that starting with even 5k is the absolute minimum i should start with. Almost there, should start in the next few months.