I was a millionaire trader before I even graduated from college. After that initial success, I thought I knew everything…
I was wrong.
I was just another lucky newbie who got too cocky in the beginning. And not long after, I made some dumb mistakes that almost wiped out my entire portfolio.
So I went back to the drawing board…
I knew something had been working initially (or I wouldn’t have made 7 figures). But it wasn’t working anymore.
I started with trade selection. Was it the stocks I was picking?
No. Hundreds of other traders were winning on the same positions I was losing on.
Then I moved to technicals. Was it the patterns I was trading?
No. Those same patterns had made me $2 million just months prior.
It was only after I stepped back and looked at my trading results from a big-picture perspective that I realized what my problem was:
It all came down to how I was thinking about the market…
Once I made these 5 mindset shifts, my account went from $2 million to $8 million…
Table of Contents
Mindset Shift #1: Understand The Upside Potential
I grew up in a small neighborhood where $50,000 was more money than most people had ever heard of.
Nobody I knew was making six figures, let alone seven or eight figures.
I thought I was killing it making just $10,000 or $20,000.
I didn’t know the upside. And that was a huge problem.
I wish I could go back in time and bet bigger. Not in my first year, but once I had a repeatable edge. Even then, I never bet big enough because I didn’t know what was possible.
When I started teaching, I never thought my students would make MORE money than me.
But Jack Kellogg has made 3x what I’ve made in half the time.* And Tim Grittani has made 2x what I’ve made in half the time.*
This is the Roger Bannister effect. Once he broke the sub-4-minute mile, more followed (because others knew it was possible).
Mindset Shift #2: Ignore The “Wisdom” Of Crowds
Penny stocks, short selling, day trading … Wall Street dinosaurs will tell you they’re all terrible, evil trading vehicles.
But I made my first million buying penny stock pumps. And I made my second million shorting penny stock pumps.
All three of these “evil” practices crushed the market when I used them responsibly.
When your own experiences tell you one thing (and everyone else is saying something different) … you’re on to something.
For me, taking singles and making a few hundred dollars a day really adds up.
My average trading profit is just $1,500.* I’m not good at trading with too much size. I get too emotional.
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Trade small in the beginning, then size up once you’re more confident.
Mindset Shift #3: You Can Trade From Anywhere
You can work from anywhere on earth. All you need is a laptop (or a phone) and an internet connection.
The old way of thinking, where you need an office, a college degree, and fancy connections to make it on Wall Street? That’s all BS.
None of the meetings, the offices, or the “suits” I met with mattered at all in my trading journey.
Freedom is the best part of trading. I love trading from Europe. I love trading from Asia. I’m trading in Bali all the time, building schools with my charity.
I purposely try to trade from difficult environments. Sometimes, I have bad Wi-Fi. Other times, I’m jetlagged. I’ve literally brought my laptop to nightclubs and traded on 120-decibel dance floors.
If you’re trading from uncomfortable places, you won’t overtrade. You’ll wait for the best setups only. And you’ll cement that habit into your long-term mindset.
Mindset Shift #4: My Strategy Is Teachable
Even after making millions, I wasn’t sure my strategy was teachable.
But it is.
When I first started teaching in 2008, I thought maybe I was lucky, maybe I was great at math, maybe I was a genius (lol)…
What I realize now? It’s all about discipline and process. I’ve optimized my teachings, and now I have 50+ millionaire students.
But I’m not perfect. I miss great setups. I overtrade. I make boneheaded mistakes, just like you…
My students make me more disciplined because I’m sharing all my trades transparently (and I don’t want to look like an idiot).
Mindset Shift #5: There’s No Exact Science
I used to think my teachings and patterns were exact sciences.
If you look through my early video lessons, I was like, “This is the way it’s done. There is no other way.”
Nope.
There are hundreds of tradable patterns. There are so many different ways to make six, seven, even eight figures…
For a while, I only made money going short. Now, I only go long because shorting has gotten very risky for newbies.
You have to adapt. You have to find whatever play works for you.
The more open-minded you are, the more success you’ll have. I have successful students all over the world with different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Trading isn’t an exact science. There’s so much more opportunity than I initially believed.
Track every trade you make. See which patterns are working best for you (and which aren’t).
You might find a pattern that works in a hot market. Then the market changes, and it stops working.
Be adaptable. Stay open-minded.
And NEVER get tunnel vision.
Cheers,
Tim Sykes
*Results not typical. Timothy Sykes teaches skills others have used to make money. Most who receive free or paid content will make little or no money. Most traders lose money. We do not guarantee any outcome regarding your earnings or income as the factors that impact such results are numerous and uncontrollable. You understand and agree you will consider the important risk factors in deciding to purchase any of our products or services. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results.
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