1. When to get in and out is what you have to learn on your own. There's Fundamental Analysis, Technical Analysis, trend-spotting, chart-watching, and a few more profit-making methods. You have to study and find what works for you. It's best to take small, consistent profits rather than look for that one "big score".

2. Some guys have started with $1000 or even only $500 and made it work. In my opinion, it's going to take you a long time to build your account if you start with anything less than $10k. As long as your account balance is under $25k, as an individual swing trader you should be able to pull in at least 10% gains per month, on average. Once your account balance is over $25k, then you can stop swing trading and start day trading. Profits are kind of limitless then.