Meet 3 day-trading baby boomers who have been navigating the market for decades before the meme stock craze

Business Insider

2 days ago

The baby boomer generation wants the r/WallStreetBets crowd to know: they were here first.
Baby boomers often get left out of conversations about retail investors, many of whom entered the market for the first time during meme stock mania in 2021. But there's a bustling group of 60+ year-old day traders who got into the market decades ago — and remain active — buying options and trading even as they sail into their retirement years.
Business Insider spoke to three day traders over 60 who were still actively investing. The traders, all of whom have been in the market for more than 30 years, cited a handful of reasons they keep going: boredom, staying mentally sharp as they age, or simply wanting to pad out their retirement savings.
They also shared some advice for younger people who are just starting their trading journey.
The exec who came back from the dot-com crash
Mark Lacy, a 67-year-old retiree, began day trading in 1994, in the days of dial-up internet. An exec in the telecommunications industry, he was investing with several brokers at the time, some of whom made bad bets and cost him thousands when the dot-com bubble ultimately popped.
Frustrated, he joined an AOL chat room, which consisted of a "couple of guys sitting at home" and offering stock advice.
Lacy had limited success at first, but eventually he hit his stride — and hasn't stopped since. Even though he's stopped working, Lacy starts his morning at 2 a.m. PT and immediately tunes into the premarket and latest coverage on CNBC. He'll eat breakfast while reading the Wall Street Journal and make a trading plan for the day. At 4 a.m., he begins executing trades and will go on for around six hours before enjoying his free time.
Lacy says he looks for three things when he decides to trade a stock:
Float, or how much of a stock is publicly traded
How much inside ownership there is
If a stock has something that could potentially drive its price higher, like corporate news or a long-term trend, like quantum computing.
If a company has low float, high inside ownership, and a potential catalyst, it's one to trade, in his book.
Lacy keeps going for a lot of different reasons. For one, he believes trading is a great mental exercise and helps keep him sharp. He also thinks it's a great hobby for older adults, given that they often have spare capital to deploy and are "more patient and more disciplined" than a younger trader might be.
"The fact is I love the market," he said. "The downside is you spend a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, so you've got to make sure you're exercising in the other times."
Over the years, his day trading profits have been enough for him to purchase a house, help his son start a business, get back on his feet after divorce, help himself and his wife become debt-free, and fund part of his kids' college education. Business Insider verified his trading activity with receipts from his brokerage account.
Advice to Gen Z and millennials:
"Be willing to learn, be willing to make mistakes, and be patient with yourself. That's really it," he said.
The dentist-turned-trader
Kenneth Schweitzer, a 68-year-old day trader based in Vermont, started dabbling in the market in the 1980s. He was in dental school at the time, and had several peers who were giving him stock tips. Intrigued, he tried playing the market, and ended up "losing everything," he told BI.
Eventually, he leveled up his trading strategy, and after he became a partner at a dental practice, he traded throughout the workday, zipping back to his personal office to check the market in between seeing patients.
Nowadays, he says he can expect to make a minimum of $300 a day trading and has a profit quota of around $1,200, equivalent to making as much as $36,000 a month. Business Insider verified his trading activity and daily income.
Schweitzer says his strategy revolves around a stock's Relative Strength Index (RSI), a gauge that shows the momentum of a stock's price and can indicate whether a company is overbought or oversold.
If a stock's RSI dips below 30, that's a signal for him that there could be upside momentum, and he begins to research the stock before purchasing and selling shares for short intervals throughout the day.
Schweitzer is also aware that there aren't many day traders around his age, and says he occasionally gets comments from others who say he's gambling.
Still, he sticks with it. It keeps him mentally on his toes, and while he's not worried about retirement, it's nice to have the extra assurance that he's still making income even after leaving dentistry.
"This kind of fills the gap. But I'm not one to sit on a rocking chair and then have a beer and just look up at the sky. That's not my style," he said.
It's also provided extra security for his family. Schweitzer also trades in a custodial account for his granddaughter, the account balance of which can now help fund most of her college education in the future, he says.
"I think we could always use more money. I mean, that's kind of why I do it," he said. "You can sit down and trade and say, 'Okay, yeah, I made a thousand dollars today. I can do this. I can do that. And you just feel better about it," he said.
Advice to Gen Z and millennials:
Schweitzer has a few pieces of advice for younger traders out there:
Find a risk management strategy that works for you. The right trading strategy differs from person to person, depending on how much risk they want to take on, how upset they'll be if they have a big loss, and if they have another source of income, Schweitzer says.
Stay disciplined and trade regularly.
But don't quit your day job. Schweitzer said he was assured by the fact that he had second-income from dentistry while he was trading.
He's also dubious of millennials and Gen Zers who become full-time traders at an early age.
"I enjoy trading, but it's not what I'm contributing to the world. Honestly, I couldn't see doing this for my entire life from age 21 because it really doesn't contribute anything to the world. And people need a purpose in life."
The former floor trader
Paul Kornreich, a 65-year-old day trader based in Florida, made over $300,000 in profits from day trading in the first quarter of 2025, according to brokerage statements seen by Business Insider. That's far more successful than the typical retail investor, 97% of whom are thought to lose money after trading for 300 days, one study found.
"I am kind of living that trade dream," Kornreich told BI in an interview, adding that he used some of his day trading funds to travel and live abroad for years at a time.
Kornreich got his start in markets shortly after graduating from college with a mathematics degree and launching his own commodities brokerage. Eventually, he began working as a commodities trader on an exchange floor, and from there, was "hooked."
Kornreich had always yearned for a career on Wall Street. Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire hedge fund manager, was his idol.
"I was always good at playing games. So that's kind of how I got it," he told BI in an interview. "I wanted to go home and just trade."
After the 1987 stock crash, Kornreich saw an opportunity and began to trade using his own money. At the time, the market was just starting to open up to everyday investors with the rise of discount brokerages like Charles Schwab.
Kornreich is aware that his success as a day trader is rare. He attributes most of his success to his experience on the trading floor, describing himself as a fundamentalist and a long-term forecaster who frequently trades using technical analysis and jumping on key signals in the market, like when the VIX spikes.
He continues to trade partly because he's bored by other hobbies aimed at older Americans. He takes his trading computer with him even on vacation and says he checks the market at nearly every hour of the day.
"I love what I do," Kornreich said. "Even when I'm losing, I love it."
Advice to Gen Z and millennials:
Kornreich doesn't advise younger people to get into day trading.
Despite his own success, he remains skeptical that younger generations can do it safely and navigate the big swings in the market without a background in finance.
Referring to YouTubers and other influencers who sell online courses to help people make money trading, Kornreich had a bleak assessment of their chances: "It's just not going to happen."