How Much Did You Start With?

That's great.

My first trade was just for $500. increased it gradually though.

do you mean your first account ? well, i'm definitely going to add more money as I gain confidence in my system/plan

It seems to me that in order to understand what kind of income you can count on, I would first try to work on a demo in the schedule in which you plan to work with real money. By doing so, you will be able to understand what percentage yield you get on average per day, per week and per month. After that, you should assess how much per month you are satisfied with. And after that, calculate the capital required for that. To be honest, I still do not believe that you can start with small amounts and achieve great results with confidence. The market is the market and you can not hope that everything will go as you have invented it and will be 100% successful. I am such a realist and I think that I need to be insured to the maximum. Otherwise, the market will simply destroy your capital and you will have to start anew.