How much should I start off with?

Hi,
I'm new here, I am exploring the idea of day trading stocks in the UK, I have opened an account with Barclays Stockbrokers, who have a commission of £6.95.

I was just wondering how much money people think I would need to fund my account with to start off with, and what kind of weekly profit targets I should be aiming for.

I was thinking of funding my account with a maximum of £2,000 to start off with and a profit target of £50 a week to begin with, is this realistic? or would I be better off trading another financial security with lower commissions?

I just wanted to get an idea from people who have been trading for a while as to how they started out.

I'm sorry if there has already been a thread made about this, as I say I am new to this, I also know that I need to form a trading plan and strategy first, and also paper test my strategy, that goes without saying, but I just wanted to get a rough idea on how much money is enough to begin with.

Thanking you all in advance
Sanil

I would also like to add ideally I would like to start off with funding my account with £500 and a £50 weekly profit target, but I was wondering if that is too optimistic, also considering the £6.95 commission?

Thanks again
Sanil

Wildly optimistic! You need to start off with very, very, very, very, very small amounts first, or instead just demo/virtual trade until you've got a tried and tested strategy which has a positive expectency. £500 might not seem like a lot to lose, but it'll add up if you keep blowing your account numerous times which is the usual route if you go into the markets like you're planning to. Save yourself the £'s to start with, and test out your ideas betting pennies instead. If it was that easy to make 10% a week, there'd be no one flipping burgers in Mcdonalds. Also in 'real' trading there's no such thing as an amount per week, get the idea of this being a regular job out of your head. Profits come in chunks, and depending on your timeframe they may be weeks or even months apart. Good luck.

Hi Sanil,
Welcome to T2W.

As a prospective day trader, chances are you'll be making a fair few trades each day. But, let's say you average just 3. That's £21.00 in comm's - near enough - AND you've got stamp duty to pay on top of that. Given an opening balance of £2k, you'll need to make at least 1% of your equity each day just to stand still. This is really stacking the odds against you before you even start!

Profit targets can only be based on your testing, demo' trading and then live trading with VERY small sums of money. Don't base them on anyone elses experiences. My targets and those of JPR2891 - or anyone else for that matter - are completely meaningless and useless to you. And vice versa.

This equates to 2.5% per week or 0.5% per day. Depending on your results (see above) this may or may not be realistic. Certainly, there are day traders who average at least this much - so at least you know it's achievable. Whether you can achieve it is anothr matter. Given my opening comments, you'll need to aim for 1.5% per day in order to achieve your net profit of 0.5%. That's 3 times as hard!

Reading forums like this one and asking questions like yours!

Check out the links in my signature for an introduction to the subject and also the FAQ forum. There's a bespoke thread there devoted to this very topic: How Much Money Does a Trader Need To Start Trading?
Enjoy!
Tim.