No, I don't think that really gets to the heart of the matter. Trading strategy and the quality of the trader and his system dictates capital requirements. Net income is simply the end product. This thread is like saying: "How much capital does it take to net $100K growing organic asparagus." Without knowing much of anything about farming - not to mention asparagus, organic farming methods, the wholesale vegetable market and distribution, etcetera.
I started with $10,000,000, lost $8,000,000 trading but feel I finally turned the corner....averaging about $110,000 trading profits per year now.
Ok now I see what you were saying, 5pm, not RTH ending at 415pm for daytrading margins. But you do understand the only bell nowadays is the dual NY NYSE/Nasdaq 400pm show biz ones for the CNBC retiree crowd?
Actually, that is true. With the unreasonable overnight margin for the close, you'd have to get out of the 10 contract position by 4PM ET, because even with the ~$40,000 in unrealized profit + the $5K cash, it wouldn't be enough to cover the ~$165,000 bond. K, so you'd get a margin call for what you cannot cover. So shave off 8 contracts for $32K profit, then ride 2 remaining contracts into 5PM for another 4 grand. Anyways, the point is made for the OP I guess. You don't need a lot to make a lot. But maybe you do. Depends on your trading style and risk tolerance.
Thank you for the replies guys. Looking at some of the replies, perhaps the point that I was making was not what some of the replies understood. I was not asking whether a certain amount of effort is required to make USD 100k. That effort is required is known. What I meant to ask was from the perspective of the phrase "it takes money to make money". That was what the question was around. I am looking to know if there are those who started with let us say up to USD 50k or less as the most they could put into their trading, were they able to able to, by putting the effort required, go to the point where they could trade for a living by making "consistently" over USD 100k per annum. That was the intent of the question. Not whether they can do it with no effort or whether they can do a one of trade on a big swing to make $100k on one of the index trades.