It really depends on the trader, but starting with anything less that $5,000 is just playing with the market and trying to get familiar. Never trade with money you cannot afford to lose. That is the golden rule of trading. Make sure you have a self-tested system in place before using real money to trade.
The more active you are - i.e., the more you trade in and out of positions - the more costly investing becomes. If I had less than six figures, I wouldn't be doing anywhere near multiple buys and sells a day. Even if you're only paying a dollar a trade, if you do 5 trades a day, you're spending $100 a month just on transaction costs - plus whatever realized losses you take.
I'd say about $2000 if you intend to be an active trader. $1000 is probably fine if you'll leave it somewhere for 4 years or so. That said, it all depends on commissions as well and calculating how much % wise a stock needs to gain before you can offset commission + make your own profit.
This post is very interesting to me seeing that I am sort of a newbie in the arena of investing and trading and I must say that just from being on this forum for a bit I have already learned a lot about stock trading and investing.
I'm a novice in this field and was kinda confused too. Thanks for this thread vmuller. Seeing this thread, I think a few thousand bucks at first would be okay. Also, thanks JPT Ewing and skynel_27 for the advice.
Invest the amount of money where you don't even blink if you lose the deposit. That's the key with all bankroll management type of professions. Whether that's $20,000 or $200, invest what won't affect your daily life and ability to pay bills. With that in mind, I'd still wouldn't spend more than $500 in the first few months or so. Just get a hang of what it takes to make investments and the process you have to go through. Will also give you a pretty good idea if you're decent at investing or not.
Generally, new investors are instructed to save about $5,000 in order to better diversify their investment. But, if that is not possible, speak with an investment strategist about your options.
It depends on the investment you are planning to begin. Before you get into an investment make sure you know everything so that you don't burn your fingers!!
I'd say around $5,000 should give you a good start. It really depends on what you're trying to invest in, as some investments might require less, or even more money. If you'd give us some specifics I'm sure we could help you out even better.