I wanted to elaborate on some points I was trying to make earlier, but with the aid of a growth chart I drew up on excel (see attachment).
I am contrasting two different deposit amounts, as well as three different monthly % targets.
I chose a 3 year time period, because it is comparable to the time you would have to invest to get a college degree. In other words, it is a generic timeframe to build a career.
The $1500 is a typical retail trader's deposit, while the $15000 is comparable to what you might expect to pay for 3 years tuition at college.
The three Targets: 5%, 15%, 25% are all achievable IMO. What I will say from experience is that it will take a much greater effort to improve your trading from 15% to 25%, than it will from 5% to 15%. That is worth noting for people currently hitting at 5% monthly.
Let me tie it all together into one main point:
You can start with a small deposit, or you can aim for a lower target, but you can't do BOTH, and expect to achieve career-trader status in a reasonable amount of time.
My ideal, given the context of this excel sheet, would be to start with the $15,000 deposit, then Strive for 25% the first year, 15% the second year, and 5% the third year. This accounts for the reality of emotion/stress increasing as the balance increases.