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Tim Grittani Shares 40 Lessons From Passing $4 Million

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/10/2023 16 min read

Another great week of trading and another big milestone for my top Trading Challenge student, now teacher too, Tim Grittani, who as you can see here just passed $4 million in trading profits in his 5th year of trading**:

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Unlike the many fakers in this industry who claim to make millions of dollars but don’t show ALL their trades publicly. Tim Grittani is 100% fully transparent showing EVERY trade publicly here, including his losses, not just a questionable screenshot here or there, just like myself and my other top Trading Challenge students. Like this great guy who was my 1st Millionaire Student** and my Student of the Year in 2016, who just had a beautiful baby and this upcoming Millionaire Trader too.

Not only is Tim a great trader, but he’s become a great teacher too, as many of my Trading Challenge students have learned with over 4 dozen webinars exclusively for trading challenge students — already 4 live trading ones in 2017 alone — and he goes so far as to personally answer questions from students in the trading challenge chatroom, so I truly cannot thank him enough for all his hard work and dedication and now his helpfulness in the community too!

Whenever he’s reached key milestones in the past, I’ve written must read blog posts like “30 Useful Tips From A Trader Who Just Passed $3 Million In Profits” and “20 Lessons From My Top Student Passing $2 Million In Profits“, but this time it’s even more important as we’re beginning to get up into truly life-changing money territory. And yes, I wrote this post entirely myself as Tim Grittani has worked hard enough for you guys and I want him to enjoy and savor this milestone a bit.

(But when he crosses $5 million in profits, whenever that happens in the future — no rush at all, just take it one trade at a time Tim — I’m going to ask him to write a massive blog post with 50 lessons from that achievement in his own words!)

First off, if you want to learn Tim Grittani’s strategy, which I must mention is now 2.5x, what I made in my first 5 years of trading, you MUST watch his great DVD guide here which is the #1 top rated guide here with 100+ incredible reviews.

And you Trading Challenge students MUST go through his archived webinars as each and every single one of them is gold and it’s sad more of you aren’t taking advantage of it!

Now onto 40 lessons from this great achievement since Tim Grittani began studying stock trading with me nearly 5 years ago (and he joined my Trading Challenge in August of 2012).

Tim Grittani’s 40 Lessons

1. Great success takes time, even though Tim Grittani has arguablyan astonishing track record over the past 5 years, he wasn’t consistently profitable for the first 9 months of his studies!

2. Don’t be afraid to bet big on perfect setups as Tim Grittani is a LOT more aggressive than me when a solid setup pops up, like this incredible trade he detailed where he made $200,000ish** in one day, read this blog post ASAP: “How To Make $200,000 In One Day With Penny Stocks: A 3,000 Word Detailed Lesson

3. Don’t run and hide from your losses, highlight them and learn from them like Tim Grittani did HERE when he lost $300,000 and learned some great lessons from it.

4. It’s okay to start small like when Tim Grittani had just $1,500 to his name 5 years ago, you won’t have big profits at first anyway, so it’s good to test different strategies and patterns in the beginning. Think of yourself as a scientist and test, test, test, refine, refine, refine.

5. Keep detailed notes and spreadsheets on your testing, Tim Grittani explained this well on his blog in the post “A Basic Example of Spreadsheet Building

6. Never forget your roots and stay humble...I’ve had MANY issues over the years with this lesson LOL, but it comes naturally to Tim Grittani and for that I’m extremely proud, as he has world class character and principles.

7. Don’t be afraid to change brokers, Tim Grittani and I have both used several brokers over the years in order to find shares to short on hard-to-borrow names, don’t feel like you have to stay with just 1 broker, try many of them and adapt if one becomes better than your current broker.

8. Yes, you can short sell penny stocks…it’s crazy I still get daily emails claiming that shorting these low priced stocks is illegal, no it’s 100% legal and logical too, you just have to find shares to short which isn’t always easy.

9. Tim Grittani has been on fire in 2017 earning $407,000+ in the first 2 months of the year**, but this is not a 9-5-type job and sometimes you’ll have months that aren’t very great and sometimes you might even lose as discussed in this video lesson

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10. Be committed to your goals, Tim Grittani didn’t get to $4 million in trading profits in 5 years** by being lazy, while yes, sometimes he takes a few days or even weeks off to travel. When he’s on, he’s 100% on, even when we went to the Maldives together and the time zone was tough for trading, he was 100% focused in the evenings even though I wasn’t., He’s far more disciplined than I am and that’s a big key to his success.

11. He’s had a hell of a run and you have to just take a second to appreciate this and get inspired by his journey:

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12. You don’t need a big fancy office to trade stocks, see how Tim Grittani has traded from some very low key places when you read “You’ll Never Look At Starbucks The Same Again [CRAZY PHOTO]

13. You don’t need fancy clothes and be a classy snob to be a great trader, Tim Grittani takes great pride in drinking his favorite beers and wearing t-shirts and gym/cargo shorts EVERYWHERE:

© Millionaire Media, LLC

14. Focus on trading and your goals first and foremost, ignore the hype as even though CNN blew up Tim Grittani’s story in the classic post “Trader turns $1,500 to $1 million in 3 years

15. Ignore the financial media as they don’t understand what it takes to be a successful trader AT ALL- as you can see from Tim Grittani and my appearances on FOX:

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16. Tim Grittani believes in “cutting losses intelligently” instead of my “cutting losses quickly” and there’s no one right way, you have to figure out what works for you…there’s a reason why Tim Grittani has been so much more successful than me and it’s due to his aggressiveness, especially when the trade setup fits his favorite patterns.

17. Don’t focus on your profits/losses on any one play, focus on trading the setup and pattern well is another Tim Grittani lesson that I completely fail at, as I’m obsessed with my profit/loss on every trade while he actually prefers to not even look and just try to give his patterns time to play out…maybe it’s because I’m Jewish and I love money, and because I trade like a complete coward, but his method is definitely worth considering if you can learn to be that disciplined (eventually).

18. Milestones don’t matter — Tim Grittani has NEVER been excited about any of his profit milestones. Whether it was $1 million, $2 million, $3 million or now $4 million** — because trading is a lifelong pursuit and the money you make shouldn’t change you, it’s just a way of keeping track of how well you’re adapting to the market and capitalizing on the plays that appear for us.

19. I know some of these rules/lessons seem very counterintuitive, but that’s what it takes to be a successful trader and “thinking outside the box” is key to your success and that’s the same reason why so few people are consistently profitable.

20. Don’t try to mimic Tim Grittani’s success or my success or anyone else’s success, definitely get inspired by what we’ve achieved, and use it to push yourself to study more, but you have your own journey to go through and odds are you won’t be turning $1,500 into $4 million in 5 years as out of thousands of students, Tim Grittani is an outlier so make sure you have the proper perspective going in.

21. Remember that most traders lose and you don’t have to trade every day., I know those of you with small accounts are thinking that in order to make millions of dollars it’s going to take TONS of $20, $50 and $100 gains, but that’s wrong — the biggest trades that will grow your account exponentially comes about only so often, every day you should be focusing on refining your strategy and figuring out what patterns work best for you, your schedule and your personality so you can be FULLY PREPARED for when the best plays appear.

22. To get a better sense of what makes Tim Grittani so successful, watch this great webinar I did with him:

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23. Tim Grittani has been a role model not just in trading, but also in our community so please comment below this post and congratulate him on his great achievements and show him how grateful we all are for his transparency and helpfulness. Even though he doesn’t have to do ANY of the things he does and could easily just be a selfish multi-millionaire trader, as there are several of those types who keep all their great lessons to themselves!

24. Tim Grittani’s DVD guide here has over 3 dozen live trades and I think they are HUGELY helpful for your education, but here’s one he put on Youtube so you can get a taste of his style…study, study, study the past and be better prepared for the future:

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25. Understand that patterns repeat themselves, for example this classic penny stock pattern that Tim Grittani made $200,000** on keeps happening every few months on FNMA so the only question is are you prepared to capitalize on it?

26. Learn from Tim Grittani’s monthly recaps and learn to make your own too:

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27. Some of you have complained that Tim Grittani stopped doing his monthly recaps, but understand he works his butt off trading and now mentoring other Trading Challenge students, he’s not beholden to ANYONE FOR ANYTHING, so be grateful for ANY of his time spent sharing his lessons and being transparent…let the man live his life too…you forget that one of the biggest reasons to become a successful trader is for FREEDOM, not work slavery and Tim Grittani just moved to the Caribbean so let him enjoy his hikes and swims with the sea turtles (seriously, I’m a bit jealous!)

28. Get inspired by Tim Grittani’s biggest and best trades, you can see he bets BIG when the setup is great, long or short:

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29. Learn from Tim Grittani’s biggest losses too and understand they’re a part of the game in helping you develop into the trader you’ll eventually become:

30. I know some of those losses would absolutely destroy some of my students, not just your account, but also your confidence and pursuit of this profession. Despite the setbacks, Tim Grittani has NEVER given up on himself, he has sometimes taken some time off, gathered his thoughts, reviewed his strategy and regrouped…the worst mistake you can make has nothing to do with big losses, and everything to do with giving up on your education/future.

31. To his credit, Tim Grittani has really controlled his losses better lately. I’ve done the same over time as swinging for the fences just isn’t worth it once you see enough in this game over time, as you can never be 100% sure about ANY stock! So it’s better to be safe and not risk gigantic losses.

32. While we’re talking about losses, even if you have a giant unrealized loss and you continue to hold and you’re eventually right about the stock and you might even end up with a profit, in my mind it’s not worth the stress/mental anguish to ever put yourself in that situation…I REALLY like cutting losses quickly and not putting myself in a position of potential disaster EVER.

33. Tim Grittani has also experimented with posting his watchlists in the past, read this blog post to see how to read it whenever he does share this valuable information…I gotta get him to use this new all-in-one research tool, as I think it’ll really help him/you too!

34. Trying to detail 40 solid lessons is REALLY tough, but anything truly worth doing in life isn’t going to be easy- so you must give it 110%…I’m writing this post at roughly 2am my local time and I refuse to go to sleep until it’s finished! You should have that same kind of work ethic if you want to be a successful trader.

35. To those who say I made all my money during the tech bubble and was lucky, my best trading year was in 2014 where I made nearly $1 million** and there was no bubble then…similarly, Tim Grittani’s success is not due to luck, it’s due to hard work, preparation and execution day in day out, but if you really want to say we got lucky, fine, it seems that the harder we work, the luckier we get 🙂

36. Contrary to what many assume, Tim Grittani and I have NEVER made our money using any kind of leverage with our accounts, the penny stocks we trade are plenty volatile enough to make life-changing gains, leverage, meaning borrowing more money than you have in your account, scares me and it should scare you too.

37. Tim Grittani only trades the most liquid penny stocks and I agree…I can’t tell you how many daily emails I get from people saying “I know this stock doesn’t fit your trading volume criteria, but….”….NO BUTS ALLOWED, every penny stock has a “revolutionary product” and they’ll hype it up all day long. But if the price action and trading volume aren’t there, don’t trade it – as it’s not worth the risk…if you remember I had my personal biggest loss of $500,000+ on an illiquid penny stock before I utilized this rule.

38. Trade penny stocks near the market open and market close, the first and last hour of the trading day is where most of the volatility happens and that’s where it’s easiest to make large gains. You DO NOT have to sit and watch the markets 24-7, that’s not sustainable in the long run and even if you can do it, that makes you a slave to the market and that’s not how it should be.

39. Dream big, but have patience, Tim Grittani didn’t make $4 million** easily or very fast, its taken A TON of hard work and time, but now that he has his process locked and loaded, if he sticks to his rules and adapts to the market, he’s set for life with this skill he’s learned.

40. Notice how many times I used the words “Tim Grittani” in this post, first of all it’s to differentiate him from me and one of my other top Trading Challenge students Tim Bohen, but no you don’t have to be named Tim to have great success in the stock market…despite both of my first 2 millionaire students** being young males from the midwestern United States, ANYONE can do this from ANYWHERE in the world, as long as you have an internet connection, dedication and the proper perspective.

Read this free penny stock guide if you haven’t already, or read it again if you have, you can never study too much! Also watch these great free videos, some of which feature Tim Grittani’s fantastic presentations at my annual conferences

Remember to please leave a comment below congratulating Tim Grittani and thanking him for sharing so much knowledge with all of us!


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Author card Timothy Sykes picture

Timothy Sykes

Tim Sykes is a penny stock trader and teacher who became a self-made millionaire by the age of 22 by trading $12,415 of bar mitzvah money. After becoming disenchanted with the hedge fund world, he established the Tim Sykes Trading Challenge to teach aspiring traders how to follow his trading strategies. He’s been featured in a variety of media outlets including CNN, Larry King, Steve Harvey, Forbes, Men’s Journal, and more. He’s also an active philanthropist and environmental activist, a co-founder of Karmagawa, and has donated millions of dollars to charity. Read More

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* Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. See Terms of Service here

The available research on day trading suggests that most active traders lose money. Fees and overtrading are major contributors to these losses.

A 2000 study called “Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors” evaluated 66,465 U.S. households that held stocks from 1991 to 1996. The households that traded most averaged an 11.4% annual return during a period where the overall market gained 17.9%. These lower returns were attributed to overconfidence.

A 2014 paper (revised 2019) titled “Learning Fast or Slow?” analyzed the complete transaction history of the Taiwan Stock Exchange between 1992 and 2006. It looked at the ongoing performance of day traders in this sample, and found that 97% of day traders can expect to lose money from trading, and more than 90% of all day trading volume can be traced to investors who predictably lose money. Additionally, it tied the behavior of gamblers and drivers who get more speeding tickets to overtrading, and cited studies showing that legalized gambling has an inverse effect on trading volume.

A 2019 research study (revised 2020) called “Day Trading for a Living?” observed 19,646 Brazilian futures contract traders who started day trading from 2013 to 2015, and recorded two years of their trading activity. The study authors found that 97% of traders with more than 300 days actively trading lost money, and only 1.1% earned more than the Brazilian minimum wage ($16 USD per day). They hypothesized that the greater returns shown in previous studies did not differentiate between frequent day traders and those who traded rarely, and that more frequent trading activity decreases the chance of profitability.

These studies show the wide variance of the available data on day trading profitability. One thing that seems clear from the research is that most day traders lose money .

Millionaire Media 66 W Flagler St. Ste. 900 Miami, FL 33130 United States (888) 878-3621 This is for information purposes only as Millionaire Media LLC nor Timothy Sykes is registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser. No information herein is intended as securities brokerage, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes cannot and does not assess, verify or guarantee the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of any information, the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. The reader bears responsibility for his/her own investment research and decisions, should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment, and investigate and fully understand any and all risks before investing. Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes in no way warrants the solvency, financial condition, or investment advisability of any of the securities mentioned in communications or websites. In addition, Millionaire Media LLC and Timothy Sykes accepts no liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this information. This information is not intended to be used as the sole basis of any investment decision, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the investment needs of any particular investor. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future returns.

Citations for Disclaimer

Barber, Brad M. and Odean, Terrance, Trading is Hazardous to Your Wealth: The Common Stock Investment Performance of Individual Investors. Available at SSRN: “Day Trading for a Living?”

Barber, Brad M. and Lee, Yi-Tsung and Liu, Yu-Jane and Odean, Terrance and Zhang, Ke, Learning Fast or Slow? (May 28, 2019). Forthcoming: Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=2535636”

Chague, Fernando and De-Losso, Rodrigo and Giovannetti, Bruno, Day Trading for a Living? (June 11, 2020). Available at SSRN: “https://ssrn.com/abstract=3423101”