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Trading Tips-Tim Sykes Penny Stock

How Millionaire Traders Lose — and What You Can Learn From Them

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 2/18/2022 7 min read

I’ve made +$7 million trading penny stocks throughout my career.

My secret?

I know how to lose better than most folks.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “Tim, how can you make so much money from stock trading from being good at losing?”

The first thing you’ve gotta understand is, everyone loses money in the stock market. But some people lose more than others.

In fact, there is a right way to lose and a wrong way…

And if you want to join the two comma club in trading, then pay close attention.

Here’s what it’s all about…

Steph Curry Mindset

Millioniare Mentor Update Avoid the Slippery Slope
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Think about trading like playing basketball. High-stakes basketball, like the NBA.

Curry knows how to sink 3-pointers. But he misses every now and then.

Does he throw a fit when it bounces off the rim? Does he sit out the rest of the game?

No! He dials in and tries to make the next one.

That’s exactly what trading is like.

I’m not gonna profit off every trade. But I use every loss as a learning opportunity. And I get right back to trading.

Want to compare failed trades? Keep reading to see what my losses look like. Learn from these mistakes!

Loss #1

First on the list is a failed panic dip buy. Not familiar with my favorite pattern? Check it out here.

The strategy is to find a stock that’s price is falling. I like to wait for it to be at least 20% on the day. Otherwise, there isn’t enough panic for a big bounce.

Then I wait to see a huge green volume candle indicating a change in trade sentiment. You can see it on the chart …

I saw Dave Inc. (NASDAQ: DAVE) start to panic on Monday, February 14, 2022. When it based around $7 and showed bullish volume I bought in.

DAVE 1-day, 1-minute candles (Source: StocksToTrade)

As you can see, the bounce failed. So I cut my losses like a pro and waited for a bigger panic.

You can read my trade notes here…

DAVE trade commentary

Later in the day, the real bounce came and I got back in for a +$1,300 profit. That completely wiped out my loss!

DAVE win commentary

Let’s review what I did after making a bad trade …

  • Cut my losses quickly. Small losses can turn into big ones. Imagine if I’d have kept my position above $7. I never would have made money back on that trade. The best decision is to get out and protect my account.
  • Stay cool. I didn’t throw a fit. I didn’t revenge trade. I didn’t find some random spiker to buy because I lost. I kept my head on straight and followed the plan.
  • Scan for re-entry. Sometimes I’m early to a trade. That’s fine. But I’d rather take a small loss and get back in later than drag it out for hours.

I found the right stock at the wrong time. Turns out I had to wait a bit longer.

Loss #2 and #3

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I actually made some money on Cyber Enviro-Tech Inc (OTCPK: CETI) before these 2 losses.

I’m including them in the same section since it was the same day and the same stock.

The price spiked in the morning on oil and water filtration news. That’s when I locked in some profits.

But toward the middle of the day, I thought it could break out again. So I bought on a dip after it touched $2.00. Then I sold for a small loss after weakness.

I bought it a second time on a lower dip hoping for another move towards the day highs. But I saw more weakness and cut it.

It’s a good thing I sold my positions. Look at what happened to the stock later that day. What a snoozefest.

CETI chart 1-day, 1-minute candles (Source: StocksToTrade)

In the end, I made money on this stock. But only because I know how to take losses!

Watch Me Trade Live

swing trading vs day trading
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Making $1 million in the stock market is no easy task. I’ve done it because I took the time to study and grind.

And I didn’t have a mentor to teach me. A lot of my millionaire students are better than me at day trading. It’s OK, my passion is teaching. I figure if they succeed, I’ve done my job right.

All students get access to is my live trading webinars. I save and catalog them for study purposes. Sometimes people get stumped until they see my screen while I’m trading. Then it all clicks.

I have an upcoming all-day live trading webinar on Thursday, February 24. Mark your calendar, this is the trading opportunity of a lifetime.

Sign up for free right here!

You’ll get to see firsthand how I make the sausage.

Walk me through what you’ve learned today. Next time you enter a failed trade, what are you going to do? I want to see this is getting through to you!


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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

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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”