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To Break Free, Learn and Adapt

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Bryce Tuohey
Updated 11/12/2026 6 min read
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Sorry to be blunt, but I have to be real in an industry full of fakes.

There are no guarantees in trading.

Learning to trade takes time. Some people take longer than others.

And I have no idea how long it will take you.

Here’s what I do know…

If you want to break free, whether from trading or any other path, you have to do this…

Keep Learning and Keep Adapting

Earlier this week, I was in Las Vegas for our Inner Circle meetup.

Long-time Trading Challenge student Himmeny was there.

Congratulations to Himmeny. What an AWESOME year he’s had…

Himmeny got up in front of the room and answered questions for Inner Circle students.

One of the biggest lessons he shared was how he adapted over time.

I wish learning to trade was completely linear. It’s not.

Instead, you have to…

Find Different Pockets and Patterns

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The Night Tape, every trading day after the closing bell, plus The Second Session guide.

You can’t control the market.

In fact, you can’t control anything other than what you do.

It comes down to time and dedication (and your ability to tweak).

I can’t tell you how many of my millionaire students thought about giving up.

Some even have family members who wanted them to stop trading (they said it would never work).

I will never sugarcoat it.

Trading Isn’t Easy, but the Effort Is Worth It

If you are struggling, remember that it took Himmeny a DECADE.

He even took a year off from trading in 2020.

“I worked probably more than a full-time job at the time. At the end of the year, I realized I didn’t make enough for the work I was doing.”

A regular 9-to-5 job would never lead to freedom.

When he came back, his PnL was flat for another five years…

Image created with Google Gemini
Image created with Google Gemini

Look, if you need to take a month off to get your head straight, do it.

If you need to paper trade or have your family yell at you, it’s part of the process.

You will have trials and tribulations. But if you want to break free, you have to keep learning.

When you find a pattern that works, you have to try to be there. Maximize it.

Himmeny’s entire trading career changed when he realized it was time to size up earlier this year.

He had a string of best months from March to July.

Then, August came and his setup suddenly stopped working. According to him…

“It Disappeared In a Day”

Can you imagine his frustration?

What if you finally “got it” after nearly 10 years, only for your setup to stop working overnight?

Himmeny has been around long enough that even though it was one of the most difficult months he’s had…

He knew that by testing and tweaking, he could find a new strategy.

Guess what?

October was his best month ever.

And THAT is…

Trading In a Nutshell

Himmeny’s story is pretty incredible, right?

And I’m super proud of him because he kept learning, kept adapting, and proved to everyone (including himself) what’s possible.

Trading is a game of constant adaptation. You have to listen to what the market is telling you.

  • When you find something that works, try to size up.
  • If something doesn’t work, or stops working, size back down.
  • You can even take time off (or paper trade).

Then, look within the community and see who’s killing it.

See what’s working for them and test it with small trades. If it works for you, then you size up.

But always keep adding to your knowledge account.

Millionaire Moves

Matt Monaco is another great example of constant learning and adapting…

© Millionaire Media from left: Tim Sykes, Kyle Williams, Bryce Tuohey, Matt Monaco
© Millionaire Media from left: Tim Sykes, Kyle Williams, Bryce Tuohey, Matt Monaco

Matt joined my Trading Challenge as a college freshman. He only had about $2,000 to start.

Today, Matt has made over $3 million trading (he’s one of my top millionaire students).*

Matt recently told me that if he had to delete everything else, there’s one pattern he’d keep trading.

On November 18, he’s teaching it at a live training that is completely free of charge. It’s called…

The Single Pattern Side Hustle

I watched Matt grind for years. He kept learning and adapting.

Every time he made a mistake, it was a chance to learn something new.

As the market shifted, Matt adapted.

So, when he tells me he’s sharing “the one pattern” he’d never give up… I listen.

Register for Matt’s FREE live training now.

I’ll see you there.

Key Takeaway

I believe anybody can learn to do this.

It won’t be easy. You will probably lose money in the beginning.

You might even feel a little bitterness about losses. Frustration isn’t always a bad thing, okay?

Maybe you just need the education that comes from a loss.

Maybe you need to know what it feels like to miss a trade.

Because THAT will inspire you to study more.

Then, if you study enough and have the right perspective about wins and losses…

I believe you can break free.

Cheers,

– Tim Sykes

*Results not typical. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

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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.
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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”