Are you planning to leave your current job to become a full-time trader? These seven successful traders proved that it's possible and they can thrive from it.

There was a time when currency trading was considered a profession that only experts could do. The limited access and high barrier entry were the main reasons why not many people chose to invest their money in trading back then. However, this is not the case today. Thanks to the change in technology and the increasing number of brokerage firms, trading is now highly accessible. Traders can easily enter the market with a small amount of capital and even make trades using their mobile phones. With such improvement, now practically anyone with passion, patience, and the will to learn, can become a successful trader.

Traders that Switch Careers

In reality, there are a number of successful traders who used to work in other industries. They are a living proof that anyone can trade and make big bucks. Some of them even had stable careers before deciding to change course and became full-time traders. Let's hear their stories below.

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Joel Kruger

Joel Kruger is known as a full-time trader, analyst, and consultant in the trading sector. For over 14 years, he has been exploring the world of forex trading, as well as stock and crypto trading. He also has been buying NFTs and even became the editor of NFT Wealth Builder, where he gives out tips and guidance on how to build a diversified portfolio of NFTs and NFT-related assets.

In 2018, Kruger has been named by MarketWatch as one of 50 traders that investors should follow on Twitter. He's also known as one of the world's most accurate Bitcoin forecasters after successfully predicting almost every major price swing in the crypto market in recent years. Such success has made him one of the most respected traders in mainstream media outlets, such as CNBC, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, and more.

Despite all that, it never occurred in Joel Kruger's mind in the past to have a career as an independent professional trader. He didn't start off as a trader nor studied financial investments at all. He initially went to law school but then worked in an investment bank as an intern in the Debt Capital Markets department. His job was to facilitate loan funds, submit client investments to the bank, and attract new clients.

After a while, he started to feel stuck with his job, so he asked to be transferred to another department. This is when he first learned about forex trading. A few years later, he decided to move to the bigger pond and started a career as a full-time trader.

His journey was far from easy though. He admits that at the beginning, there were times when he wanted to quit due to the unbearable losses. He said that trading with your own money is harder and more draining than trading for a company. But even so, he never once gave up his dream. He kept trying to improve his performance by learning technical analysis, understanding fundamental news, and eventually, developing his own trading style. He said he needed about six years to get consistent profits and consider himself a professional.

 

Charlie Burton

After getting his interest peaked by being invited to a 90s trading event, Charlie Burton is now a well-respected expert in the market. Today, he runs his own trading education company called EzeeTrader, which is filled with a bunch of enthusiastic traders from various places. Through this company, he basically offers support and guidance to beginner traders to get started in the forex market.

Charlie Burton essentially started his career as an account manager for Scottish Provident, and then Old Mutual Fund Managers. His job was to advise Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) on the company's funds, pensions, etc. Then, in the late 1990s, he began to take trading courses like many others at the time.

At first, he had no intention of leaving the job that he liked so much. He was only interested in the stock market and thought that it could be a great way to grow his wealth as a side job. Sometime later, he began to try trading in other markets such as indices, commodities, and forex, before eventually switching to a full-time trader in 2001.

Similar to Joel Kruger, Charlie also faced a number of challenges in his early days. He said he became overconfident with his trades and ended up losing more than he had anticipated. For him, the key to break the losing streak is to maintain discipline. A good trader must be able to control their natural emotions like greed and fear in order to make informed decisions. It's definitely not an easy feat, but with lots of self-analysis, it's possible.

 

Michael Rogan

Just like the previous traders, Michael Rogan also didn't start off as someone who works in the financial investment sector. Before he became a trader, Rogan was an oil and gas chemical engineer. Unfortunately, he got laid off from the company where he worked and was forced to find an alternative way to make an income. Rogan then decided to take a completely different path and started trading in 2015. Not long after, he managed to build his own trading monitor company named Mangrove Trading Academy.

In one of his interviews, Rogan said that his success started when he stopped using other people's strategies. Instead, it's better to understand the true nature of the market and how it works. Most people make a profit by watching successful traders and imitating them. He said that while that can be good to start the journey, it is less likely to last long in the long run.

 

Chris Lori

Chris Lori is a former Canadian national athlete. He participated in four Olympic Winter Games as a part of the Canadian Bobsleigh Team and won multiple international medals, including nine Crystal Globes and a total of twenty-two World Cup Medals during his athletic career. After 35 years, Chris decided to retire and became a trader. He now works as a professional trader, forex mentor, fund manager, and Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).

Chris Lori is an expert in price action-based intraday trading. His trading style is quite unique because he rarely uses indicators and tends to use very low leverage. To make profits, he likes to wait for the right momentum before entering a trade by predicting the strength of the price trend. He said that in order to be a successful trader, it's important to have a structured learning process. For instance, beginners should do their own research and test the strategy themselves to figure out what works for them. This would be the most effective way to gain consistent profit.

 

Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen is a famous American hedge fund manager who was ranked the 106th richest man in the world and the 35th overall in the United States by Forbes. He has excellent analytical skills, particularly in market analytics, and is able to make accurate speculations.

Not many people know that young Steve Cohen was very into poker in high school. At one point, he even stated that his poker skills have helped him in figuring out how to arrange a good risk management system. He graduated with a degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he first opened a brokerage account with $1000. He then landed a job at Wall Street as a junior trader in the options department and began making profits.

In 1992, Cohen built his very own company named S.A.C Capital Partners using $20 million from his own pocket. Impressively, his firm managed to amplify the number to $14 billion by the end of 2009. Unfortunately, everything changed in 2013 when he was faced with civil charges for failing to prevent insider trading in S.A.C Capital. He was found guilty and charged with a $1.8 billion fine.

Moreover, he was also prohibited from managing clients' funds for two years after the verdict. But rather than feeling discouraged, he has been using his time to prepare for a big comeback. In 2016, he started a new fund called Stanford Harbor Capital and successfully reached his career highs again.

 

Greg McLeod

Greg McLeod is an independent forex trader with more than 20 years of experience. He was born in Los Angeles, specifically in an area with a strong gangster culture. He graduated from the University of California with a degree in literature. He then got a job as an English teacher for junior high school and high school students for about 15 years.

His interest in forex trading started when he was doing research for his teaching job. Basically, he was required to find a learning method that can attract students' attention. He later discovered that teenagers were most likely to be interested in the topic of how to make money. This is how he stumbled into forex trading, which is a great method of making money without violence. However, since his trading knowledge was still very limited at that time, he needed to study hard in order to fully implement forex trading.

Over time, Greg became increasingly interested in forex trading. He got the chance to work in one of the leading retail forex brokers in the US and managed to earn a lot of insights as an analyst and trading mentor. Once he gained more confidence, he then decided to become a full-time independent trader and started his own company called Elite Trader University. He said that in order to be successful, a trader must have a strong mentality as well as a fully-tested strategy.

 

Michael Burry

Michael Burry is a reputable hedge fund manager who got famous after predicting the downfall of the US economy in 2008 and making a net profit of $100 million bet against the banks. He was portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2015 movie The Big Short, which was a film adaptation of author Michael Lewis' best-selling book of the same name. To this day, he's often referred to as "the Big Short investor".

While Burry is known as one of the most successful figures in the world of trading, he used to have no intention of becoming an investor, let alone a hedge fund manager. When he was two years old, Burry suffered an illness that caused him to lose one of his eyes. Once he recovered, he began to develop an interest in the medical world and ended up getting a degree in medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. However, when he was doing his residency at Stanford, he started to develop an interest in the investment world and then decided to leave school to start his own hedge fund called Scion Capital.

 

Final Words

Based on the explanation above, we can see that it's definitely possible to switch careers and become full-time traders. However, it's also important to note that such a big decision must not be taken lightly. Once you take this road, you should fully commit and dedicate your time to the job.

For that reason, this career path is recommended for those who are fully ready to leave their stable source of income and take a higher degree of risks. Ideally, to make a jump from trading as a hobby to trading as a career, you should've been trading for a good amount of time. It would be really helpful to have a good experience in different market situations and also know how to handle them, so you can avoid losses better. Apart from that, you should take into account the impact on your lifestyle and income. Note that your working hours will change and your income might fluctuate depending on your performance.

At the end of the day, forex trading is mostly about passion and dedication. If you want to be a professional trader, you must learn a lot and try different things. You might not make profits in an instant, but that's part of the journey. What's more important is how you evaluate your work and learn from your mistakes.