The £9million burger f lipper
Chip van owner’s made a fortune online … but kept up the day job!
ANYONE queuing up for a burger from the Sizzling Griddle food van might be surprised to know that the man flipping them is sitting on £9million investment fund.
Despite earning £170,000 a year from online trading, Stephen Bliss has until now decided not to quit the day job.
He has been dishing out cheeseburgers, hotdogs and bacon sandwiches from a layby on the A174 – all the while earning a small fortune as a self-taught trader.
Mr Bliss, 34, started with an investment of £3,000 and quickly became one of the top investors on the global trading platform eToro. He only moved out of his parents’ home two years ago after setting up his account and buying a £ 120,000 semidetached house in Redcar, North Yorkshire.
Mr Bliss now has 6,600 investors placing as much as £200,000 in his care – but despite a 935 per cent annual return this year, he is still working for the family catering business. His said his girlfriend Nicolle Dewse, 24, has also chosen to keep her waitressing job because she enjoys it so much.
Mr Bliss said: ‘I fell in love with trading. I never expected to do so well. It was a real shock when I hit my first million.
‘I thought “wow”. Now I just take it in my stride. It was a big learning curve. I’ve got about 6,600 people investing their money in me.’ He started several years ago with a virtual ‘practice’ account that required no investment so he could learn the tricks of his new trade. After two years he felt confident enough to put his own money in – but quickly lost half his stake.
He explained: ‘You can open practice accounts and trade with virtual currency. I didn’t want to start throwing real money at it and end up losing it all.
‘I put some real money in, about £3,000, and lost about half of it. They say never
‘I haven’t splashed out on anything’
trade with money you can’t afford to lose but losing that was a bit of a blow.’
But after his initial set-back, Mr Bliss worked his way up to become one of the site’s top traders, out of ten million users, and now manages a £9million ($12.75million) fund.
He said: ‘I haven’t splashed out on anything, I’m investing all the money because I’m facing a massive tax bill. It could be 45 per cent of my income.’
Others using eToro now come to him for advice. He said: ‘I enjoy making money for other people. A guy messaged me saying he invested £60,000, I got it up to £200,000 and he messaged me to say he’s just gone on a trip around Malaysia with his mates on a Harley-Davidson and wanted to thank me.’
Giving advice to new traders, Mr Bliss said it is essential to remain emotionless and get clued up before starting.
He said: ‘You have to know what you are doing and what you’re investing in, how to read the charts and the technical analysis. It’s definitely not something you can just jump into. I really enjoy learning about it, the returns are far greater than what you get from putting money in a bank account.
‘Every year has been positive, I’ve returned 935 per cent this year which is significant, but I don’t expect to do that every year.
‘My target is 5 per cent, which is a bit more realistic.’
He added: ‘Now I want to step back from the catering business and focus on the trading full-time.’