It depends on your preseverance and discipline. If you start with a capital of say 200k then its not that difficult. If 20k its more challenging. If 2k, probably will take mad skills and a long long time. Lesser your capital the more you should have a full time job to invest every month to grow your stock portfolio. In fact, I think you should have at least a million dollars in stocks before you go fulltime. That's my opinion.
The first million is the toughest because we normally start with very little and it takes tremendous growth to reach $1 million from say $10K. The second million is easy, you only have to double your money. Honestly, to safely go full time you have to be able to live on a (small) fraction of your expectancy (trading profits), otherwise the "risk of ruin" will shorten your trading career. It is not a number but depends on your lifestyle: I would need a lot less trading capital if I live in Bangkok vs Beverly Hills/Newport Beach.
I can tell you my plan, I trade during the day and I work at night, when I can make at least twice what I make at night then I might consider trading full time. I have a wife and 2 kids so it is more difficult then if I was single I could probably trade full time right now.
Most of us started with very little money, so, not loadsa money but loadsa time. The magic of compounding can only happen when there is lots of time.
%% Because so few do.HOW do i know that for 95-100%% sure?? Well lets say 97.777% sure, which is close enough for me. MilioNaire MiNd Book, by Dr Stanley. But investing /stocks/stock funds is much more common to get 7 or 8 figures or more. Easy to hit >>60% hit rate+ more; but doing something for 10 years that' s a whole different deal. And if a bank offers you a 500k loan; double check the collateral/ contract/lawyer.
[A] Simple math skills......... [z]Rule of 72; also work 6 days a week 12 hours a day=72.Aardvark Trading or Aardvark Clearing says avoid bank loans in general. Would it take $500 k + a bank for an edge?? it could; depends on neighborhood.If one believed stuff like a low PE is a buy, or what DB said about stocks being ''overvalued'' it could take much more than 500K. LOL-LOL Of course if DB ever gets an EPS way above 25 EPS LOL, + less debt than 243% i may or may not pay more attention to them . NOT a prediction.