because with 100k, you can trade up to 700k with portfolio margin account. if you are future or option trader, the leverage is higher. for personal day trader, 700k for one time entry is enough.
Lets say you risk 1% (which is a lot, 0.2% is usually mine) and youmake 100 trades a month (most do more), you win 40% of them and make a return/risk reward of 2:1 you are up 20'000. If you scla it down to my risk level you are still up 5'000. Thats why. But in my honest opinion a trader should not start out below 500'000 since there are months where the market barely moves at all. If you then have a down month while still having expenses you are going to struggle with only 100k much more then you had with 500k. I started with 200k and know how it feels.
I'd say less than 1 out of a 100 day traders have $500k to start day trading with . But your right . You have to expect some flat to down months and you'll still have expenses . I think to have a long term shot at making a living you need a min $300k with 4-1 margin thats $1.2 million . So if you avg 15-20% a yr your doing good. I started in 1989 with a $400k account which is like $1 mil plus now.But i've read story's of guys with $50k that made good careers . Anything can be done if you want it bad enough. Guys with $10k have gone to prop houses and killed it .
Couldn't resist lol Many aspiring day traders start with small under-25k accounts and MISTAKENLY think they should daytrade pos bullshit under-$10 risky charts. It's much smarter to trade small shares of decent trending $20ish stocks with consistent trends.
I day trade index's so not the same, but I find I don't need more than 3K to trade $10 per pt NQ or Dax, I just take out profits above each month, any more and lose the plot. Make $200 most days pretty quickly, which is enough to live off here so all good.
Unless that's a girl, i try to run away from things like these in life. Let's say a person is one of these geniuses that apply logic to this game : (seen many times, good example noneless) timestamped People got these very basics, - completely wrong. Why would you need to start the living out of it - right away ? Why it can't be a side activity, that you're either learning or something that makes an additional income to your regular salary. And for that you don't need $100k. Neither - $500k. First learn & understand da hell are you doing. ,,You need 500k to start'' . ... ... ... So, based on that, PDT should be moved from $25k to $500k. (the irony) Catch one swing of 400% like $CHEF did, with $500 and you're already $1500 up.And that would take just... 1000 times less than initial suggestion. ,, When my team of engineers came to me, they told that the radio module will cost 100k. I said i need one for 10k. They said it's impossible. I said - i give you 12 months to make it possible. 18 months later, they came back, with a better module than NASA had and for 10k'' - Elon Musk (details might be wrong, you get the idea tho)
Your a unicorn if you can do that day in and day out and month in and month out . That means your making 100% on your money every single month. How did you do in 2019 with a grindy type mkt ?
I agree. And I know 2 guys that made it both with less then 15k in forex, high leverage made it possible, they did so by high risk trades until their accounts grew above 100k. Edit: but its rare. Seen more then 20 people fail to do so. 1 had more then 400k and aborted operations with 310k