You may not know this about expert day trader and founder of Warrior Trading Ross Cameron, but he actually began his career as a New Year’s resolution. And that New Year’s resolution changed his life.
In a recent YouTube video, he opened up about his decision to make that resolution and how he was able to stick with it even in the most difficult moments when he wanted to quit.
Warrior Trading: From the Ashes of Ross Cameron’s Terrible Year
Around the time of the 2008 financial crisis, Cameron was living in New York City working for an architectural firm.
“It was a very interesting job and I liked it a lot,” said Cameron. “[But] I sensed the writing on the wall that [the financial crisis] was not going to be good for the firm.”
He spent a lot of time going back and forth between his home state of Vermont and the Big Apple until he realized Vermont was where he felt calm and connected. So he decided to quit — but he knew the job market in Vermont was even worse than in the city. He picked up part-time employment at a local architectural firm while he figured out what to do next. But the work started to slow down and eventually stopped completely.
“I was like, ‘OK, I need to be bringing money through the door. I need to either go get a regular job or figure something else out,’” the Warrior Trading founder recalled.
Another driver was that he’d grown up with a sense of scarcity.
“A lot of people have a mindset of either abundance or scarcity, and I grew up with a mindset of scarcity,” said Cameron. “I felt like we didn’t have a lot. And I always felt that pressure, especially from my mom, that things were very tight.”
So when he moved back up to Vermont during the financial crisis he started looking for ways he could start his own business and be self-reliant so that he wouldn’t have to worry about losing a job or financial security.
Yearning for Financial Independence and Security
One of the challenges Cameron faced was that he didn’t have a lot of startup capital.
“I certainly wasn’t eligible to get any loans because I wasn’t employed, and self-employed isn’t good enough to get a loan. So I was struggling with figuring out what I could do to jump-start a business. And one of the things that I was good at, because I’ve been introverted, [is] I became very good with a computer at a fairly young age. And so one of the things that I started looking into were ways that I can make money online. One of those ways, obviously, has been trading.”
He remembered that one of his school friends had made around $16,000 trading a penny stock when they were in high school. He figured if he could do that two or three times a year, he could earn a respectable side hustle while also working at Vermont’s ski lodges or in a deli or restaurant.
“My friends were all working shifts where they were up really late at night, so I was not a morning person in these years,” he shared. “So part of my New Year’s resolution was setting the alarm on my phone just to actually wake up so I could watch the market open at 9:30, because I wasn’t waking up at 9:30. I was staying up to 2 or 3 in the morning and I was sleeping until 11 or 12, which was the same as most of my friends who were working at restaurants.
“So I made this commitment. I was going to change my schedule, and that by itself was hard.”
How a New Year’s Resolution To Wake Up Turned Into Big Bucks
In his YouTube video, Warrior Trading founder Ross Cameron recounted those first few days pulling himself out of bed.
“I was like, ‘This is so stupid. Why am I doing this?’ Probably the same as someone who sets a New Year’s rate of exercise. But I kept with it. And what I started doing was, I would sit down each morning and I would pull up some websites [like] Yahoo Finance.”
He’d read the Yahoo Finance message boards where people discussed different stocks.
“I would Google search for penny stocks,” he said.
He subscribed to a bunch of penny stock alerts and started getting emails.
“This was good because I was able to start looking at stock charts [and] getting oriented with what’s moving,” said Cameron.
And in one of his first trades he made $300.
“I had a little bit of beginner’s luck … I was blown away. I was like, ‘I just made $300 in five minutes. That was incredible. That’s more than I would have made it a full week of working one of these minimum wage jobs. Whoa, this is real. There’s some serious potential here,’” Ross Cameron remembered thinking.
But no sooner had he made it than he lost it.
For Warrior Trading, It’s a Happy New Year
While losing money is never fun and could put people off trading, Ross Cameron had a different perspective.
“The thing is, I wasn’t worried about losing. The fact that I had been able to prove the proof concept of how quickly that money could be made, that’s what motivated me,” said Cameron. “I was like, ‘I have to figure this out. Now I know that it’s real. I’ve gotten a taste and I’ve got to figure this out.’ And at this point … it’s just a matter of creating a set of rules and a strategy and a system that I’m gonna follow.”
Ross Cameron doesn’t claim the next few years were easy. He tried a few strategies that were a disaster and some that were just OK. But he eventually turned a corner and Warrior Trading was born.
But it all started with one New Year’s resolution: To wake up early and persevere.
Disclaimer
The content of this article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice or as a guarantee of success in day-trading or any other form of investment. Day-trading involves substantial risks, including the potential for significant losses. Results can vary greatly, and past performance is not indicative of future outcomes. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and to consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Disclosure
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