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Trading Psychology

Superstar Trader Head Check: Mindset Tips From Tim Grittani

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 12/9/2021 8 min read

Grittani’s Brain-Pick Session: Key Takeaways

  • Tim Grittani sees three steps ahead of other traders — here’s what they are…
  • Grittani’s fix for a choppy market…
  • How Grittani saw CEI’s breakout before it happened…

Grittani’s latest hit DVD, “Trading Tickers 2,” is here — grab your copy now!

Ever want to be a fly on the wall when three highly accomplished traders talk about the things that have had the biggest impact on their success? Today’s your lucky day…

Mike “Huddie” Hudson and Dominic Mastromatteo recently had the opportunity to pick the brain of my top student EVER, Tim Grittani, about a topic that affects traders everywhere — including YOU. Read on to find out what it is.

Grittani, Huddie and Dom have all been through my Trading Challenge. I’m so proud of their success. And what I want you to see here today is a peek into the mind of a master trader.

Here’s what happened…

Picking Tim Grittani’s Brain

tim grittani with wine
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Dom, Huddie, and Grittani know for most traders, trading isn’t the hard part. It’s how you deal with the mental aspects of trading that will define you as a trader.

Do you cut before your risk is broken? Do you tend to go in oversized or undersized?

You need to understand yourself as a trader FIRST…

It helps to get insight into how different traders approach the same problem. And when Grittani offers to share his take on it, you’d be wise to listen.

Grittani has made more than $13.5 million over the past 10 years…

He’s also been a big influence on Huddie and Dom. They say his first DVD, “Trading Tickers,” is basically the textbook for how they trade. Huddie’s watched it well over 10 times!

One thing that makes Grittani such a great trader is his analytical nature. That’s always been how he approaches the market.

And he’s just as analytical with himself. Here’s what Dom and Huddie have learned from Grittani…

Grittani’s Market Mindset

Goode, Sykes, Grittani
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Let’s break down how Grittani approaches the market. Take notes!

Look at the Big Picture

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Grittani sees the field in a way that few traders do. He’s followed so many stocks, in hot and cold markets…

He has a sense for how charts behave. This means knowing the players:

Knowing their motives:

  • Where the demand is
  • Who’s about to get out

So now he’s two steps ahead of most people. Knowing the step after is fundamental to his trading:

  • Where the squeezes might be
  • Where the falling knives can drop

That’s the point where he gets an idea of which side will have a more explosive move up or down.

Lean Into Your Strengths

Grittani is SO good at this.

There are so many ways to make money in the stock market. What you’re trying to do as a trader is find what resonates with you.

A common mistake people make is trying to turn their weaknesses into strengths. You can spend your whole life doing that and not become good at anything.

After 10 years, Grittani has become good at everything. “My risk/reward is a lot better on longs. My win percentage is a lot better on shorts,” he told Dom and Huddie.

Here’s a video on how he did it…

The Market in 2021

The market has changed, but Grittani’s philosophy hasn’t. That’s because his philosophy is built on results. Here’s what has changed:

  • The market is choppier than it used to be
  • There are no super clean runners
  • There are a lot more fake outs, a lot of red days after a breakout
  • Or there are red mornings and then an immediate recovery

Sounds messy, but it’s all good for Grittani. He just widens his risk levels. It allows him to stay in a trade and not have to micromanage it.

What Grittani Looks for in a Trade

Let’s look at how Grittani targeted Camber Energy Inc. (NYSE: CEI) in September…

“I like messing with CEI,” Grittani told Dom and Huddie. “I made a YouTube video on CEI a few years back. I’m very familiar with the story of what a disgusting company CEI is.”

Watch that video here.

Dom calls it “making friends with tickers.” You get to know how they act because it’s the same story again and again.

A lot of what was in Grittani’s CEI video still applies to what’s going on today.

This is a company with zero employees and no real news. Because Grittani saw the volume holding up, he knew that it was no ordinary pump

He had an idea that it was going to break out.

Act Like a Retired Trader

This is how I tell my students they should trade…

Act like you’ve already achieved your goals — and only trade if the setup is too good to refuse. 

That’s what Grittani has done for the past two years. He’s taken time off to spend with his family…

Never forget — that’s the reason we’re in this. Grittani has built an awesome future for his two young children, and he gets to decide how he wants to spend it.

So when he comes out of retirement to trade a stock, you’d better listen.

Get the Same Education as Grittani, Huddie, and Dom

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All these traders — and all my 20+ millionaire students — found their way in my Trading Challenge.

I’m proud to teach traders like this. And I’m even more proud when my students exceed my talents. That’s a sign that I’ve done my job well. It’s incredible that so many of my students go on to become teachers themselves.

And in my Trading Challenge you have the opportunity to learn not just from me, but from so many others who have studied for years to find their way. These traders have changed the course of their lives forever.

That’s powerful.

And it’s not easy. It takes so much dedication, determination, commitment, and sacrifice. Think you have what it takes?

Apply for my Trading Challenge today to find out.

What did you learn from Grittani’s approach and what can you apply to your trading? Let me know in the comments!


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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”