Good morning, traders…
A friend of mine asked me: “If you had to start over today with only $5,000, how would you grow the account?”
Great question.
I’ve been trading for 22 years.
At one point or another, I’ve made every mistake in the book.
I’ve blown up accounts. I’ve revenge-traded after losses. I’ve chased squeezes. I’ve overtraded when I should’ve been patient. I’ve trusted nameless, faceless “gurus” with no verified results.
The list goes on…
Suffice to say, if I could go back and start fresh with $5,000 today, I would do things completely differently.
And that’s where you come in…
Right now, you have an advantage I didn’t have when I started. You can learn from my mistakes without paying for them yourself.
I’m going to walk you through exactly what I would do differently if I started trading today with a small account.
This simple approach can save years of frustration and tens of thousands of dollars in “loss tuition” to the market.
If I Had To Start Over With A $5,000 Account, I Would Do This First…
Trade One Strategy Until You Master It
There are hundreds of different strategies out there.
Swing trading. Day trading. Options. Stocks. Technical analysis. Fundamental analysis.
With $5,000, you can’t afford to be a generalist. You need to master one approach.
If I started today, I would focus exclusively on VWAP pullbacks in names with Smart Money flow.
That’s it.
One pattern. One setup. One strategy.
That’s how I nailed 3 200% wins last week:
- CIFR December 19 $13 Calls: $2.80 to $4.30 (56% gain)*
- TJX November 28 $149 Calls: $1 to $3.50 (250% gain)*
- WMT December 5 $106 Calls: $0.50 to $1.93 (200% gain)*
- GOOGL December 5 $300 Calls: $5.50 to $21.00 (281% gain)*
You might’ve missed last week’s wins, but you don’t have to miss this week’s follow-through…*
Track this pattern across your watchlist every single day until you’re recognizing the setup in your sleep.
Until your win rate stabilizes above 50%. Until your risk management becomes automatic.
Risk More % Than You Will Later
You’ve probably heard the classic trading rule: “Don’t risk more than 1-2% of your account on any single trade.”
But with a $5,000 account, you can’t be that conservative.
1% of $5,000 is $50 per trade.
At that rate, you’re not gonna grow the account in any reasonable timeframe. You’ll be stuck in the PDT rule forever.
The goal with a small account is simple: get to $25,000 and escape the PDT restrictions.
If I started today with $5,000, I would risk 5-10% per trade. That’s $250-$500 per position. 10 opportunities if you risk $500 per trade.
If all ten trades go red, you need to re-evaluate your strategy completely. Something is fundamentally broken.
But if even half of those trades go green, the percentage gains possible with options can double, triple, or quadruple that account in a short period.
The classic risk management rules are designed for accounts that are already big enough to compound slowly.
Eventually, once your account has grown, you should lower the overall % risk per trade.
But with just $5,000, you need more risk to create meaningful gains.
5 Mistakes I Wouldn’t Make
- I wouldn’t chase meme stocks or short squeezes from social media.
- I wouldn’t enter any trades without a stop-loss (30% max).
- I wouldn’t add to losing positions, hoping they’d come back.
- I wouldn’t compare my progress to traders with bigger accounts.
- I wouldn’t quit my job until my trading income consistently replaced my salary for at least 12 months.
What You Should Do Right Now
With a $5,000 account, the name of the game is FOCUS.
Pick one strategy and master it before adding complexity.
- Short swing trades with Smart Money flow.
- Compression setups that are ready to explode.
- Earnings momentum and continuation.
Size your trades to give yourself 10 high-probability opportunities to prove the strategy works.
Watch the charts before you enter. Study how setups develop before they trigger. Track what works in different environments.
- The discipline comes first.
- The skill follows the discipline.
- The gains follow the skill.
Build that foundation with your $5,000, and getting to $25,000 becomes a matter of “when,” not “if.”
Happy trading,
Ben Sturgill
*Past performance does not indicate future results
