An edge with no equity will get you nowhere. An edge is worthless until you build the skill necessary to use it. It's like a high performance sports car. You just hand the keys to a 16 year old kid and expect him to be able to handle it even though the car itself is amazing. It takes skill to drive a high performance car. And it takes skill to refine and execute your edge. Edge itself is meaningless. The guys that worked on the floor of the CBOE when options had .50 spreads on the bid and offer. It was easy money for them if they knew how to calculate synthetics. Yet guys still blew out their accounts taking unnecessary risk. There is nothing about this business that's easy. Getting an edge is not enough. Capital buys you time. And every trader needs time, lots of it. It's the most valuable currency to any trader. And no, just because you have capital does not mean you have a prayer to make it as a trader. The two things are mutually exclusive. In fact even with unlimited amount of capital your odds are still pretty small. It doesn't matter how we define what edge is, it still has to be acquired. You can't just buy edge. It takes time to get that edge. Guys that are just starting out need TIME. And time is not free. It cost money. Without it you can never acquire, develop or create your edge.
Many hedge funds blew up in 2008 not because they did not have an edge, but because they ran out of capital. You have to understand that an edge is not a license to print money or even make money. Capital gets you through the draw downs. Also when one edge runs out, another must be acquired. All that takes capital. You can give a new trader all the edges in the world, but if they don't have the capital behind them to buy the time to learn how to actually trade, it really doesn't matter. Once you are already a profitable trader there are a whole new set of variables you have to contend with. There is no such thing as good or bad. The industry changes. Every business runs on capital. It's about risk vs. reward. A slow choppy market may be bad for a momentum trader but great for a counter trend trader. Markets themselves are never good or bad.