If you have a brokerage with very low commissions so that you can trade for about a penny per share or less, then you can start with any amount, but the SEC has a rule that makes our kind of trading impossible if you don't have more than $25,000 in the account. You don't need to TRADE that much, but there needs to be that much in the account to do our kind of trading. Here's how that works:

 Most of the kinds of trades we discuss qualify as day trades according to the SEC; that is, in and out in the same trading day. According to SEC rules, you can’t make more than three day trades in any five-trading-day period (on a rolling basis) without being classified as a day-trader and this triggers a requirement that you have at least $25,000 in the account being traded. If you have less than $25,000 in the account, or the account value drops below $25,000 and you have exceeded this limit of three day-trades in a five-day period, the SEC requires your broker to freeze your account from starting new positions. Your account will be frozen until you deposit more money to bring the account over $25,000 or until five trading days have passed and you have promised in writing to not do this again.

 So, you can use our techniques in any account with any amount of money, but IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN $25,000 IN THE ACCOUNT, then as soon as you make three day trades within any five-day period, you cannot start a new position for the next 5 days!

 We typically make several trades a day, so you really can't follow our method if you have less than $25,000 in your account.  In practical terms, you should have at least $28,000 in your account to start, because you can’t count on your very first trades necessarily being successful, even if you have been successful for a while on a paper-trading basis.

 As always, never trade more than you can afford to lose - for example, just because you must have $25,000 in the account for SEC purposes to qualify for day-trading doesn't mean you have to trade with it all! As long as you have a per-share commission structure and the cost is low, you can do our style of frequent trading with $1,000 or $5,000 within your $25,000+ account, and leave the rest in cash or in longer-term investments that are less risky.