I know you'll find this hard to believe, but not everyone knows from childhood what they want to be when they grow up. And though your ambitions might start out as something modest like being president, a doctor, a lawyer, or a Hollywood superstar, you'll probably wind up working at a fast food joint or behind a desk like the rest of us.

Several stock traders who found fame later in life started out on a much different path. And if you're not still working at the first job you ever got, you're in the same boat.

Bruce Babcock

Bruce went to Yale and Berkeley to become a federal prosecutor. He is the guy who successfully prosecuted Manson family member Sandra Good in a conspiracy to assassinate President Ford.

In 1979, at age 35, he quit his day job and jumped into the world of commodity futures trading.

Yeah. He was making great money as a federal prosecutor but this hombre valiente left the security of his day job to make money in the uncertain world of futures trading.

George Lane

George went to school for many years to become a doctor so I should say George Lane, M.D.

This brave (or crazy) dude, at the age of 33, quit his medical practice and went to work for E.F. Hutton & Co. in the 1950s. I'm sure his parents were freaking out with that decision. He started off as a floor broker where he learned the ropes for 10 years, then quit E.F. Hutton and started his own regional brokerage firm that had 41 branch offices.

But what he's known must for is his invention of the stochastic indicator.

When George was asked to describe his famous indicator, he said, "Stochastics measures the momentum of price. If you visualize a rocket going up in the air — before it can turn down, it must slow down. Momentum always changes direction before price." J. Welles Wilder

Wilder went to school to become a mechanical engineer of which he worked as one for 7 years. He quit his day job to trade in the real estate market. He made good money at that before selling out to other investors.

He then went off the radar for the next 13 years as he studied the futures market.

He invented the technical analysis indicators known as the Average True Range, the Relative Strength Index, the Directional Movement, and the Parabolic Stop and Reverse.

When asked what is the best advice he could give to traders he said, "I've found that the most important thing in trading is always doing the right thing whether or not you win or lose this is market savvy money management... I would go so far as to say that whether one makes money in the markets depends on whether or not one uses the proper money management."