He Quit After 28 Years… to Trade Full-Time with Prop Firms

What does it really take to swap a 28-year bakery office career for full-time trading? In this episode, Stephen shares how a side hustle in retro-computer circuit boards morphed into a crypto windfall, why he pivoted to Forex and prop-firm funding, and the disciplined path he took to grow from $2 risk to multi-account, six-figure capital.

🎧 Inside you’ll learn:

Why starting with 5K–10K prop evaluations beats chasing a flashy 100K challenge

The cost-effective math behind prop accounts (for example, $500 for 100K buying power)

Stephen’s scaling formula — copying the same trade across many accounts instead of shooting for higher percentage returns

His “stealth exit” from the 9-to-5: trading mornings, taking pay-raise offsets as extra free time, and tapering hours until the job was optional

Practical tips for risk sizing, overcoming drawdowns, and spotting prop-firm trends before everyone else

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Chapters and timestamps below — click any to jump straight to the part you need.

Timestamps / Chapters
00:00 – Intro and what to expect
00:40 – Meet Stephen: 28 years in a bakery office
01:14 – What is prop trading and why it’s exploding
02:09 – From bread to Bitcoin: early market curiosity
03:02 – Crypto boom of 2020 and cashing out before the crash
04:47 – Exiting at 68-69K: beating the 100K hype
06:12 – Investing in trading education and the Forex switch
08:10 – Why prop firms are better than personal brokerage for beginners
09:53 – First evaluations: blown accounts and hard lessons
12:03 – Start small (5K–10K) and the true cost of learning fees
15:24 – Building psychological tolerance: from $2 to $800 risk
18:03 – Losing to breakeven to consistent: the real growth curve
20:27 – Cheap prop accounts as the ultimate classroom
22:34 – Scaling income with many modest accounts
24:47 – Industry trends: 1- and 2-phase challenges vs instants
26:37 – Quitting the job slowly: cutting hours, not pay
32:55 – Friday trading pitfalls and overconfidence
33:53 – Final tips: learn then trade — never both at once
34:43 – Where to follow Stephen and closing remarks

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