For people who have not started yet
Every other answer to "how much money do I need to start trading?" comes from someone paid when you start: a broker, a prop firm, a course. Their answers to the same question run from $0 to $50,000. Ours is computed — from the size of one normal trade, the real cost of trading at your size, and your own regulator's published loss number. We don't take money from brokers.
Tell it the market you are considering, the capital you actually have, where you live, and the honest state of your demo record. It computes that market's minimum viable capital — it does not guess it — and tells you whether your money can work, can only learn, or should wait. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
The three answers
Your capital is below the level where this market's mechanics stop fighting you — or the money is rent money, or the market is not legally open to you. The verdict names the failing gate and the exact next step, which usually costs nothing.
Your money can run the machinery, but the honest name for the first year is tuition: the verdict prints what that tuition costs at your size, per month, before your strategy makes or loses a cent.
Your capital clears the computed minimum for this market and your demo record exists. The verdict still prints your regulator's loss number — workable capital is not a prediction.
The verdict gives you the arithmetic for your market and your capital. The Start-or-Wait Kit gives you the complete workbook: the demo-record audit (the 50-trade review grid), the staged capital plan up to your market's minimum viable capital, the 90-day learning plan week by week, and the real-cost tracker — the spreadsheet experienced traders build by hand, ready to fill in.
Included in the $39 Start-or-Wait Kit
The number nobody derives
Ask the internet how much money you need to start and you will be told $5 (a broker's minimum deposit), $100 (a broker's blog), $1,000 (a prop firm), $2,000–$5,000 (a course) or $25,000 (a rule that no longer exists). Each number is the answer that pays the answerer. Ours is the largest of two computed terms: enough capital that one normal trade risks only 1% of the account, and enough that your monthly trading costs stay under 2% of it. The full derivation, with every input dated, is the dataset.
Read the minimum-capital dataset
Market
Expected cost to a first payout ≈ $1,571 — from a $99 ticket. The attempts are the capital.
The rule that already changed
On June 4, 2026, FINRA's replacement of the pattern day trader rule took effect: the $25,000 minimum and the day-trade count are eliminated, replaced by intraday margin standards. But brokers have until October 20, 2027 to phase the change in — so today, whether the old rule still binds you depends on your broker. We check the brokers' own pages and date every row.
ChallengeOdds
Expected cost to a first payout, and your style checked against the program's written rules. challengeodds.com
CheckBeforeDeposit
Your country × your broker: which entity holds your money, and what your own regulator says about the platform. checkbeforedeposit.com
Why we can print this
Brokers pay comparison sites for every funded account. Prop firms pay affiliates 8–25% of every challenge fee — including the repeats. Course sellers sell the dream itself. A site paid by any of them cannot print "don't start yet," cannot derive a minimum higher than a partner's deposit minimum, and cannot lead with the regulator's loss number. We sell one thing — a $39 workbook, once — so the verdict can go where the arithmetic goes. Educational content. Not financial advice.
Sources: FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 (April 20, 2026) and the brokers' own pages for the PDT tracker; ESMA Decision (EU) 2018/796 and the AMF restatement for European CFD loss figures; ASIC Report 828 (FY2023–24) for Australia; CFTC retail forex materials for the United States; Barber, Lee, Liu & Odean (Taiwan market data) and Chague & De Losso (Brazil) for day-trading outcomes; the FPFX Technology dataset of 300,000+ prop-firm accounts, reported by Finance Magnates (2024); broker-published minimum deposits and margin schedules as dated on the dataset page. If a figure has moved since our check date, the issuer's own publication wins — and write to help@doogex.com so we can correct ours.