Contrary to popular belief, starting with $500-$1000 is a sure way of losing your money and thus very risky.
If you want to get into trading, the more capital you have the less risk you take.
90% of people that muck around with forex lose there money and most of them started with small amounts that you been recommended.
The reality is, unless you open a forex account with a minimum of $10,000 you are just stuffing around and inevitably going to blow your account (meaning lose what you got).
In forex if you want to trade minimal risk then you want to trade with little risk.
If you have no capital in there as a buffer (margin) then you cant place stop losses etc in ideal places because you have no capital to allow the market to move as it does.
With $10,000 you can still trade 0.01 micro lot which is the same as trading 0.01 micro lot when you have $500 from a per pip value. However the margin requirement you have before being stopped out by the broker and occurring losses.... and then coming onto this forum and saying how the broker stop hunted you, closed your position and they scammed you and all the other non sensical stuff that happens by ignorant people who have no clue how market works... is significantly smaller margin with $500.
In short:
1: trading 0.01 micro lot with $10,000 or $500 in account, per pip value is same risk. its 10c per pip regardless of how much capital you have.
2: With only $500 you are going to have far less margin requirement which means more times than not you will be stopped out of your trade for a loss. Then you will get frustrated and say how broker scammed you on this forum when in reality you scammed yourself by not having the capital to increase your margin so that the market has a chance to move without stopping you out.
So more capital = less risk.
And lastly, do not forget you can always withdraw your money from broker if you feel this is not for you. So starting with $10,000 does not mean you risk $10,000. What it means is you protecting your trades being stopped out incurring you losses. Its actually a safety measure for you. If you find after some minimal trades this is not for you, withdraw your capital.
Capital is protection, not risk. You put no capital in, then you risk because you have no protection.