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Success Stories

Reflecting on 10 Years & $13.5 Million

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 4/18/2022 11 min read

What a difference a decade makes…

10 years ago, Tim Grittani wasn’t a trading legend. He hadn’t made over $13.5 million in trading profits.* He wasn’t the creator of “Trading Tickers” and “Trading Tickers 2.”

Not yet, anyway.

A decade ago, Tim Grittani was a 20-something kid from the Midwest. He was working a summer job at an insurance agency and dreaming of a better life.

Then he discovered my Trading Challenge and decided to start learning about penny stocks. He had no way of knowing he was embarking on the journey of a lifetime…

It’s crazy to think how much he’s achieved in the past 10 years. Talk about the student becoming the teacher … Tim Grittani has made roughly double the profits I have and in about half the time.* I couldn’t be prouder … I want more students to surpass my trading profits!*

Ready to get inspired? Let’s take a trip down memory lane and explore a truly mind-blowing decade of studying, learning, and trading…

Tim Squared: The Email That Started It All

These days, I’m not just a teacher to Tim Grittani. We’re close friends. I’ve seen him celebrate milestones like getting married and welcoming two children to the world.

Way back in 2011, I didn’t know Tim yet. He was a brand-new student, starting out with Pennystocking Silver before upgrading to the Trading Challenge.

But I could tell he had drive when he sent me this email on May 17, 2011…

Grittani’s Email From 10 Years Ago

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Hi Tim,

Just wanted to take a minute to thank you for all that you do. I’ve been trading for about 3 weeks now and although I don’t have enough money yet to open an Interactive Brokers account and start shorting stocks you can be sure it’s on my radar! But in the meantime, I’ve been following your long plays and learning with each one. I took a hit on JBII because I held way too long, but managed to take that lesson and apply it to TISA and STVI for profits.

I especially want to thank you on STVI for the early heads up you might play it short term if it broke out. I decided to take a little longer of a position on it and got in at $2.55 last Friday, then sold it today right before the easily predictable collapse at $2.89. Would have gotten out in the 2.90s but could get an execution, oh well. My best trade yet by far!

I hope you’ll keep giving us heads up on potential plays despite the idiots who can’t seem to figure out when they should buy despite you clearly outlining it, keep up the good work! Within the next year I hope to buy some of your pennystocking DVDs and get on board with Pennystock Millionaire too. Hell, once I have a little more time maybe I’ll get in on the internship or the challenge too! You’re a fantastic teacher and I can’t wait to keep learning, thanks again!

— Tim Grittani

It was so great to see a student clearly dedicated and excited about trading. But I had no idea I was talking to a future trading legend…

$1,500 to $13.5 Million: It Didn’t Happen Overnight

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Grittani blew up two trading accounts before he became a profitable trader.*

He’d studied finance in college. As a result, he’d taken a stab at trading to understand the finance world better — but he lost most of what he put into his initial account.

He realized that he needed to get a better education if he wanted to make trading work.

Then he found me.

For the first three months, he only studied — no trading. He immersed himself in my video lessons and followed the chat room.

When he was ready to start trading again, he started with $1,500. Over the course of the next six months, he blew up his account and had to re-fund it.

For his first nine months, he wasn’t profitable at all. 

Would you be willing to stick with it for nine months — or longer — without making money?

I want everyone to watch this video because Grittani explains what kept him going…

Turnaround Through Tracking Data

It’s hard to overstate how beneficial it can be to keep a trading journal. By tracking your own trading stats, you can better understand what works for you — and what doesn’t.

By tracking his data, Tim was able to identify and focus on what was working. That’s when things started to change for him.

He continued to adapt and refine and improve. Singles added up. Over time, he was able to slowly scale up his positions. His profits began to grow. By early 2013, he was up over $100,000 in profits. Then by the end of the same year, he’d crossed the million-dollar mark.*

This sort of exponential growth is not common, but I have seen it happen more than once. For instance, consider my student and 30-Day Bootcamp collaborator Matthew Monaco.

During the summer of 2020, I announced his $100,000 profit milestone. Early in 2021, I announced that he’d crossed the million-dollar mark. Matt’s currently up over $1.6 million in trading profits as of late May 2021.* And he just released a new crypto bootcamp and alerts system…

Not All Smooth Sailing

By 2014, Tim Grittani was largely considered a trading success story.* But in retrospect, he points to the period between 2014–2015 as one of his “worst” trading times.

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Technically, he was green. But he didn’t do as well as he felt he could have, because he got away from one simple rule…

Cut losses quickly

He became stubborn about cutting losses.

Case in point: his staggering $290,000 loss on Lakeland Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAKE) … He actually wrote a blog post detailing the entire excruciating experience. Read it before you hold and hope

Luckily, his losses knocked him back into reality.

This period taught Grittani one of the most important lessons traders can learn. There’s literally never a point when you know it all. It’s humbling, sure. But it can also be a source of motivation to keep learning.

What’s Important to Tim Grittani Now

Grittani has a lot of money.* He lives on a tropical island with his beautiful family.

Yet he remains one of the most humble and giving people I know…

Sharing With the Trading Challenge Community

Here’s a great example of how Grittani gives back to the trading community.

In June 2020, he had his biggest win to date — a $272,000 profit on CytoDyn Inc. (OTCPK: CYDY).*

How did he celebrate? By offering to give Trading Challenge students a webinar breaking down the trade. It was a great webinar, by the way. Here are 15 takeaways from it.

Then he went on the TWIST podcast to discuss that trade and more. Check out that awesome TWIST episode here.

Seriously. This guy! His willingness to be so open and helpful with others even after attaining his level of success is an inspiration.

Grittani’s Blockbuster Trading DVDs

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When you ask my up-and-coming students what educational resources have helped them most…

Many of them mention Grittani’s “Trading Tickers.”

For example, millionaire trader Roland Wolf points to “Trading Tickers” as helping him really understand how trading worked.

Several of the up-and-coming female traders featured in this post also mention it by name…

More recently, Grittani followed up with “Trading Tickers 2” … The buzz has been incredible so far.

Here’s where you can purchase “Trading Tickers.”

Here’s how you can get “Trading Tickers 2.” 

Here’s to Many More Decades

Tim Grittani has had a truly excellent trading adventure over the past decade.

Don’t get me wrong, his results are exceptional. Not every trader will attain his level of profitability. However, I love sharing his story because it demonstrates what’s possible in the world of trading.

Grittani isn’t a math genius. Nor is he the luckiest guy in the world. He’s just a guy from the Midwest who got obsessive about the stock market. Grittani stuck with it, scaled up over time, and ended up making millions.*

Are you inspired by his story? Are you ready to be disciplined and study hard? If so, consider applying for my Trading Challenge.

What part of this story inspired you most? Leave a comment congratulating Tim Grittani on 10 years of trading … I love hearing from you! 

Disclaimers

*Please note that my results, as well as Tim Grittani, Matthew Monaco, and Roland Wolf’s results, are not typical. Most traders lose money. It takes years of dedication, hard work, and discipline to learn how to trade. Individual results will vary. Trading is inherently risky. Before making any trades, remember to do your due diligence and never risk more than you can afford to lose. I’ve also hired Grittani, Matt, and Roland to assist in my education business.

This level of successful trading is not typical and does not reflect the experience of the majority of individuals using the services and products offered on this website. From January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, typical users of the products and services offered by this website reported earning, on average, an estimated $49.91 in profit. This figure is taken from tracking user accounts on Profit.ly, a trading community platform. Timothy Sykes has a minority shareholder interest in the platform. The typical success rate of users was based on the following methodology:

  • From January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, 849,078 trades were uploaded to Profit.ly.  633,891 trades were “verified” (corroborated with trade account data).
  • Instructor trades are ignored.
  • Average P&L / trades is obtained by calculating total P&L and dividing by the total number of trades
  • Average trades per account is obtained by counting the total number of trades and dividing by the number of accounts (mean function

**Tim’s primary income derives from the sale of financial education products and subscription services offered by various businesses and websites in which he has an ownership stake. 


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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. Read More

* 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”