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How Many Millionaire Students?

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 12/23/2022 5 min read

Eduardo makes 31…

31 students I helped cross that $1 million threshold.

He’s the latest in a line that stretches back over a decade.

In a remarkable coincidence, it’s also almost 9 years to the day one of my first students, Tim Gritanni, cross that threshold and got a nice writeup on CNN.

Last I checked, this family man, who started with $1,500, is up well over $13 million…

And he’s still going strong…

Looking back, it’s remarkable what they and my other students achieved.

For as much as folks like to talk about change, so much has stayed the same.

You could take my 7-Step Penny Stock Framework, look at any of the last 20 years, and have a blueprint that works in every time.

How is this even possible?

Do I have some sort of magic touch to endow traders with special insights?

Hardly.

It’s the same practical advice I’m about to share with you.

Let Promoters Do The Work

Promoters make trading much easier for me.

They’re the reason stocks stick to my 7-Step Penny Stock Framework so well.

Some of these folks are legit public relations employees.

Others are pure pump-and-dump scammers.

You’ve probably seen or heard about the Wolf of Wall Street.

I sat down with him for a podcast a few months ago.

This guy went to prison for the scams he ran.

And even he was surprised at not just how promoters still operate but how many there are.

He knows all too well the devastation these promoters cause.

They suck regular folks in, juice shares, and sell out their holdings for a profit, leaving everyone else holding the bag.

I call these guys out when I see them.

But I also know they exist and how to exploit them.

It’s much easier to do this with small caps and OTCs than large-caps.

Small caps and OTCs are simply easier to manipulate.

I teach my students two very important lessons.

First, how to spot promoters.

If nothing else, I want my students and anyone that will listen to stay safe.

Second, my students learn to take advantage of their tactics.

That’s how and why my 7-Step Penny Framework works.

Follow The Framework

Once my students understand promoters, I teach them the ins and outs of my infamous framework.

It’s truly amazing to see it work month after month, year after year.

My students can use this framework and the setups I teach to match their style and preference.

For example, on the front side of a Supernova, breakout trades and dip buys work great.

My personal favorite is to take morning panic dip buys on the backside after a stock starts to crash and promoters work to prop up a stock.

Here’s an example from a recent runner, CGrowth Capital Inc. (OTC: CGRA).

I participated in this one several times with panic dip buys.

I combined Breaking News Catalysts with this framework and setup selection to create powerful, repeatable trades that follow a straightforward process.

It’s like cooking.

With a recipe, ingredients, and a kitchen, you can whip up some fantastic dishes.

The more you do it, the better you get.

Lose Small and Fast

Unlike cooking, traders who bet too much can burn the house down.

One of the hardest lessons to learn is also one of the most important.

No trader can succeed without risk management.

I keep it simple for myself.

My setups either work quickly or I cut them loose.

If I know what to look for when I buy a morning panic dip, anything that doesn’t meet my expectations gets tossed.

Initially, it feels like defeat to rack up a bunch of small losses.

But when you hit just one decent winner, you quickly realize it pays for all of those losses and then some.

Heck, many of my profitable students make a few grand on each trade and lose a few hundred.

If you look at my profile, you’ll see the same thing.

There’s no reason to hold and hope. That’s what promoters want you to do.

Stick with a process that manages risk and you’ll quickly find that not only are decisions easier, they make more sense.

And the best part…once you get good, it will last you a lifetime.

That’s why the Millionaire Challenge is a great place to start.

—Tim


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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”