timothy sykes logo

Success Stories

$2.4 Million in 5 Years: How Kyle Williams Built His Edge

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 4/18/2022 7 min read

Kyle William’s Trading Strategy: Key Takeaways

  • 99% of trading is THIS — see how Kyle puts that into action…
  • The smart steps Kyle took to cut down on early losses…
  • How learning short selling can make you a better long-biased trader…

 Join Kyle, Jack, And Mari In Breakouts & Breakdowns Room Every Day!

You’d be forgiven for thinking million-dollar trader Kyle Williams was always a superstar.

But what you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. It took Kyle five years to get to this point. Here’s how he’s worked to get to this level.

Start Low, Go Slow

Kyle’s big trades get the headlines. Yeah, he made over $100,000 on a single trade back in February…

That’s the goal. That’s why he got into trading. Here’s a note he wrote to himself in 2017.

kyle williams note to himself
Photo courtesy of Kyle Williams

But big trades aren’t HOW he got here.

You have to go back to the first 18 months of his trading career.

Like many beginning traders, Kyle put his trading account before his knowledge account.

He lost more than half of his $6,000 starting balance in his first year of trading…

But he was already working to turn his luck around.

Kyle applied for and was accepted into my Trading Challenge. He watched all of my DVDs. He devoured every single video lesson.

Next, he scaled his position size way down. Sometimes he’d go long on just 100 shares.

He wasn’t trying to build his trading account anymore. Kyle understood that he needed to first build his knowledge account. He had to work on his strategy first.

Shorts of Increasing Size

sykes and kyle williams on laptop
© Millionaire Media, LLC

By his second year, Kyle had worked out his strategy.

He’d started out going long with panic dip buying. But that didn’t really work for him.

Next, he tried buying breakouts. He says he was terrible at it and that he didn’t have the patience.

Eventually, Kyle turned to short selling with the first red day strategy. And he learned to short OTC promotions.

This is the point where you might start tuning out. You may just want to go long. So you think this doesn’t apply to you.

More Breaking News

But I’m about to show you how valuable it is to learn about the opposite side…

Preparation Meets Opportunity

First, check out Kyle’s stats:

  • 2018: Kyle makes $32,282
  • 2019: He makes $92,100
  • 2020: This is the year that Kyle’s preparation pays off for him. He makes $701,167 — his best year yet.

He did it by sticking in his wheelhouse. Kyle didn’t change his limits or take on more risk.

And he knew what worked for him. He was able to size up and take bigger risks safely when an opportunity came.

This made for some MASSIVE profits. But I want to look at the next two months.

Changing Gears in a Changing Market

Up to this point, Kyle had gone 90% short and 10% long.

But the market was changing, and Kyle saw a new opportunity.

The first few months of 2021 were amazing for OTCs. But they could make volatile moves.

So Kyle leveraged his short-selling skills to go long.

“If I was a short seller, would I want to short safely right here?” That’s what Kyle would ask himself.

In other words, if he wouldn’t short it, he knew the odds would be better for going long…

So he changed his tactics. From a heavily short-biased trader, he started going long 50% of the time.

He got good at trading breakouts — good enough to lead the Breakouts & Breakdowns chat room.

In the first two months of 2021, he made more than he had for the entire year in 2020. He banked an incredible $714,064.

Why Kyle Is on Year 6 of the Trading Challenge

© Millionaire Media, LLC

Kyle’s still in my Trading Challenge — as a moderator now. That means Challenge students have the opportunity to learn from him.

And I know Kyle — like all successful traders — still works to grow as a trader. The best traders never stop trying to improve.

I want Trading Challenge students to learn that and to learn from as many top traders as possible. You never know when you’ll need to adapt to a changing market or whose strategy you’ll vibe with.

So study from as many as possible — like Kyle. See how he’s put in the kind of effort you need to take on my Trading Challenge.

Ready to put in that level of commitment and discipline? Apply to my Trading Challenge now.

We don’t accept everyone. We want more traders like Kyle. Are you that trader?

What can you learn from Kyle’s story? How have you progressed in your trading journey? Let me know in the comments!


How much has this post helped you?



Leave a reply

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

* 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”