"is there any kind of trading strategies that allow you into the $1000 to maybe $2000 (or less) category?"

IN the Forex you can open an act with as little as $400 bucks or so....BUT, Forex is a completely different animal than the S&P or nasdaq stocks...it moves differently, it reacts to news differently, it trades all night...not something I ever got into... Stocks are just the opposite - tend to move slower, but require the largest start-up capital, particularly if you plan to daytrade.

I ended up with the S&P eminis because it was sort of a middle ground....you could open an acct for $2500....try to keep in mind that even if you could open an acct for $1000 you really wouldn;t want to....you could only trade one contract and if a move went against you unprotected, you could lose 25%+ of your balance in only one trade....

psychologically no one can really trade that way...it';s too stressful.
you might want to ask my friend at the web site I mentioned if he knows of any smaller acct startups allowed by brokers....he has done it all compared to me :-)