Gen Z and millennial day traders tell us about switching from the 9-to-5 experience to full-time stock investing
BI spoke to three Gen Z and millennial traders about how they've navigated the market full-time.
Their outcomes varied, with one trader returning to work after six months.
Carmine Rosato, a 26-year-old based in New Jersey, has never worked a traditional 9-to-5, but his alternative path has been lucrative.
According to income statements he showed Business Insider, Rosato has managed to make as much as six figures in a month.
There are ups and downs, but he's become used to the swings in his time as a full-time day trader, he said.
"I was just drawn to the freedom and the unlimited upside," he told BI in an interview. "I just saw a path that could give me full control over my time."
Younger Americans have flocked to the stock market in recent years. Online communities on Reddit, YouTube, and Discord are thronged with Gen Zers and millennials who claim to trade the market full-time or are actively trying to — many in an effort to escape the typical career path and the 9-5 workday.
Andrew Menaker, a psychologist and trading performance coach who says he works with retail traders trying to go full-time in his practice, thinks the trend is a response to the economic struggles that younger people face.
"How do I get a good job? It's harder for young people these days to get a head start, and I think they recognize that," he said, pointing to concerns like AI destabilizing the workforce, and general macroeconomic uncertainty. "Day trading feels like a way to regain some kind of control."
Here are the stories of three full-time Gen Z and millennial traders.
Rosato first became interested in the stock market when his high school teacher assigned a project that involved students creating a model stock portfolio.
Rosato says he grew up seeing many of his family members unhappy and overworked in their corporate jobs. Being his own boss and the prospect of a comfortable life were major motivators for him to learn how to trade.
"I wanted a Lamborghini. I wanted a nice watch. I wanted to go on vacation," he said. "And I'll even attribute that to the Wolf of Wall Street."
Rosato said he practically locked himself in his dorm room for two years while he learned how to day trade. Eventually, he started hitting his stride and made a deal with his father that allowed him to drop out of school once he made enough money.
He left college at the end of his sophomore year.
Rosato, who's been in the market for nine years and also shares trading advice on YouTube and Discord, says the key to his strategy is controlling losses, such as by implementing stop-loss orders that prevent a trade from losing more than he's comfortable with.
He also limits himself to no more than two hours of trading a day. By 11:30 a.m., he logs off to pursue his hobbies.
Over the years, Rosato has been able to treat himself to big-ticket items like cars, watches, and vacations, but he says the freedom is one of the biggest perks.
"Some people are just unhappy going through their normal 9-to-5 job, whereas I wake up every single day grateful that I get to work out of the comfort of my own home," he said.
Ross Cameron, a 40-year-old day trader based in Massachusetts, also became interested in stocks after creating a dummy stock portfolio for a middle school class.
He says the project opened his eyes to just how much money could be made in a short amount of time. At the time, he delivered newspapers and mowed lawns for spare cash. His family lived so frugally that they budgeted every dollar and frequently argued about what they couldn't afford.
"It was never about getting rich. It was never about becoming a millionaire or anything like that. It was about just making enough money that I wouldn't have to go work a regular 9-to-5 job," he told BI.
When Cameron was 22, his father died and left $100,000 to him and his sister. Cameron used some of the money to fund a brokerage account and began to day trade small portions full-time.
It took several years of trial and error before Cameron found a strategy that worked. He attributes his success to trading high volatility stocks and riding the intraday swings.
He also limits his losses by putting a trading cap on his brokerage account. The cap prevents him from executing more trades once he loses his average daily gain, which current stands around $30,000, according to brokerage statements viewed by BI.
Like Rosato, Cameron also offers trading advice to followers online through his YouTube channel and through online courses. He says that on a typical day, he trades for around three hours, from around 7 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Like most day traders, his profits vary wildly, but he made an average $157,000 a month in 2024, according brokerage statements shared with BI.
Cameron says he lives a relatively non-extravagant life, but he feels secure in his ability to provide for his family and has been able to splurge on luxuries over the years and regularly travels with his family.
"I have a level of affluence that I never would've expected to have," Cameron told BI, though, due to the variability of his income, he said he still feels the need to work every day.
For every story of hitting big in the market, there are cautionary tales that show how stressful the life of a day trader can be.
Edgar Camacho, a 35-year-old nurse based in Florida, got into day trading a decade ago, as Robinhood and other zero-fee brokerages lowered the barriers to the market for more people.
He purchased some Disney call options and "instantly" made $2,000. From there, he was hooked, he told BI in an interview.
"I was like, holy crap. I had no idea what I just did," he said. "I just made money from my phone. I've got to figure out how to do this more often."
Over the next several months, Camacho says he got sucked into the hype of trading and learning from day traders who showed their activity on YouTube. He decided to take a six-month sabbatical from his job and try his luck at playing the stock market full time.
Camacho was frustrated by the demands of his job, where 60-80 hour weeks are the norm.
"Our life is wasted working pretty much. There's no three-day weekends. There's barely a two-day weekend. And once you have real adult responsibilities—laundry, groceries, kids—I mean, those two days fly by."
He also felt squeezed by the pressures of saving for a home, saving for retirement, and providing for his family.
"I went to school for eight years. I got my master's. I always figured once I got to this point, I'd be set," he said, adding that, while he's financially secure, he still makes some sacrifices to save.
Camacho traded using a brokerage account with a balance of around $30,000, which was his entire savings at that time. In a few months, the balance had been whittled down to $2,000, he said.
Camacho said losing that money was one of the lowest points of his life, and though he pared most of his losses, he ultimately decided to call it quits and go back to work.
Camacho says he believes millennials and Gen Zers are enticed by the fantasy of being a full-time trader in part due to influencers on social media who claim to fund lavish lifestyles by trading just a few hours a day.
"People truly believe that. And I think, in a sense, I kind of believed that that could be done as well," he admits.
He said that he thinks the best way to make money in the market is to be in it for the long haul.
"The only strategy that really works when it comes to this is buy and hold," he said.
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