Ross Cameron
Warrior Trading’s Ross Cameron made his first million in the stock market after wisely investing $583.15 into a trading account. Within a few years, that sum grew to $10 million in profits. As his profits and investments have grown, so too has Cameron’s fame. Warrior Trading began in 2012 as a humble blog and has now grown into a versatile educational platform. His blog covered his experiences with the volatility of the markets and his personal take on different problems he encountered along the way. His readers were the beginning of a day trading community, which was fueled by the sincere interest, questions, and enthusiasm of a large audience that wanted to learn from Cameron’s failures and triumphs alike.
Cameron doesn’t describe himself as an entrepreneur; he thinks of himself as a person who likes to stay busy. He’s fueled by teaching people who are interested in how they can pursue day trading too. These underlying beliefs have pushed him to publish books, improve his website, and offer formal courses.
Childhood
Ross Cameron's interest in the stock market was originally sparked as a young child in Vermont after he learned that a great-great uncle had made his fortunes there. His young cousins were able to live off his uncle’s choice many decades later, and it inspired Cameron to take the investment path.
Around 1997, he visited New York City with his Montessori school to learn about the stock market. The students spent a semester trying their hands at trading an imaginary portfolio. It would be a few years before his dream of being a success in the stock market would be set into motion.
Early Years
In 2001, Ross Cameron opened his first trading account. He invested in companies that he recognized, like Pfizer and ExxonMobil. Back then, he didn’t realize that value changed hands so quickly that it was possible to make money in less than a day.
In those first few months, Cameron checked his positions every day, read up on companies, and worked odd jobs to make extra money. His shares didn’t turn a profit, though. It left him questioning whether someone could build wealth on the stock market if they weren’t already wealthy.
He put his dreams away for a few years and enrolled in college to get his teaching certificate. He came from a family of academics, and he had long seen how education — formal or otherwise — could change people’s lives for the better.
His father became ill while Cameron was in college, so Cameron worked at a small gas station while he helped care for his dad. He dreamed of owning a small gas station while there. He learned how to change brake pads and do oil changes along the way. These skills would come in handy for his classic car hobby down the road.
After his father passed away, he went back to school for architecture and design and received his bachelor’s from Vermont College. Then, he worked in a number of capacities at a small interior architecture firm in New York. He was an intern, a bookkeeper, a project manager, and an office manager.
Trading Career
After his father died in the late 2000s, Ross Cameron received $100,000 from the estate. Cameron’s original plan was to buy a rental property, but he didn’t have the tax returns to be approved for a mortgage. Instead, he decided to hire a financial adviser to help him invest the money into the stock market.
It was the era of the Great Recession, and the returns were poor. Cameron knew of a friend who made $16,000 trading a single penny stock. Could he do the same?
He took a two-year journey that taught him about the terms and conditions of day-trading, but still didn’t result in profits. He found himself in credit card debt with less than $20,000 left of his father’s estate.
He had to start selling his possessions to get back above the $25,000 minimum to day trade (a requirement for trading margin accounts that’s mandated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority). He took the time to study everything that he had done in the past two years — while losing money. He found his footing with small-cap stocks, ones that were up somewhere between 20% and 30%. The sum grew.
A Warrior Is Born
Warrior Trading started off on WordPress as a blog called “Day Trade Warrior.” Ross Cameron already knew both web development and graphic design, so it was relatively easy for him to build out everything from the layout to the content. His blog began as a way to document his own journey, detailing what worked and what didn’t work. Despite the winning strategy he’d found, he still had several stumbling blocks even after he was put on the right track.
Growing Traffic
Once the interest in his blog increased, so too did pressure on the website. Ross Cameron decided it made sense to turn into more of a platform or a hub for day traders rather than a straight blog. He added the Day Trading Chat Room in 2014 and then published How to Day Trade in 2015.
This book was a supplement to the courses that Cameron was teaching. It ultimately sparked a lot of discussion about how to adapt his findings to a variety of situations in the market. Interest grew in Cameron’s blog and chat room, and the questions began to pour in.
$583.15 Into $10-Plus Million
Could the same tactics that grew Ross Cameron’s $25,000 work with a much smaller amount? Cameron learned the answer when in 2017he invested $583.15 in his day trading account. It grew to over $300,000 within one year, then to $1 million before topping out at $10 million in a few years’ time.
By the time he had to navigate the highs and lows of COVID, he had more than enough to capitalize on some of the most dramatic shifts in the market.
Paying It Forward
Warrior Trading’s Ross Cameron remains devoted to training and trading alike. Aspiring traders can find his pearls of wisdom in several places: He’s curated a list of recommended reading at Goodreads. He uploads new content to his 1 million followers-strong YouTube channel and posts updates on Instagram, Facebook, Medium, and LinkedIn. People can learn more about day trading whether they check his personal pages or the official accounts of Warrior Trading.
Cameron does caution that his day trading wins aren’t typical. However, there are ways to use his tactics for better investing.
Personal Life
Ross Cameron lives with his wife and two sons in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. In his spare time he enjoys playing tennis, sailing, working on classic cars and chronicling the hobby on his blog, “Tire Kickers by Ross Cameron.” He also enjoys making his own maple syrup.
