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Trading Lessons

Minimum Wage to Millionaire and What It Takes

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/19/2026 4 min read

It’s easy to feel like everyone else is getting rich.

You’re stuck grinding at the same job, praying for a window of opportunity that never comes. Meanwhile, the guy with the Lamborghini on Twitter made even more money last year.

You’re not alone. My millionaire students felt the exact same way.

Social media is partially to blame for your frustration. But it’s also true that more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That number grew in 2025 to nearly a quarter of all U.S. households. While the top 10% continue to compound their wealth month after month.

It feels hopeless.

If only you could get to the other side of that income hump, to stop scrounging and start saving.

As it turns out, you don’t need a fancy degree or a corner office to escape a low-income trap …

I’ve mentored over 50 traders who started from almost nothing. Regular people with regular jobs, like cashiers, valets, construction workers, etc. And they each grew their small accounts past $1 million in trading profits.

They didn’t have to climb the corporate ladder. They built their own.

All with a specific strategy. A strategy that’s now pointing toward even bigger opportunities in 2026. There’s a unique catalyst about to take hold …

The market doesn’t have to be a mystery anymore. My millionaire students and I decoded it.

Pizza Shop Cashier to Self-Made Millionaire

Image credit: Evan

When Evan Schunk joined my Trading Challenge, he was a pizza shop cashier.

He worked for minimum wage and it wasn’t enough.

Is it enough for anyone?

Evan didn’t have the life he wanted. But he did have what most people take for granted: Discipline, curiosity, and grit.

When he found my videos, he realized that trading wasn’t about luck. It was about data and repeating behaviors in the market.

He studied the best setups over and over again, logging every variable from float size to news catalysts to the volume for each spike.

Over time, his effort turned into actionable knowledge about the markets. Evan’s now pulled in nearly $3 million in verified profits.

Understand, Evan had some losses along the way. Speaking to traders who’ve already lost in the market: You’re not alone.

It’s not a reason to quit.

When a bad trade cost Evan $600,000 in one month, he didn’t crumble. He refined his rules.

That’s what separates real millionaire traders from the dreamers. They treat every loss as an opportunity to refine their process.

Watch my entire interview with Evan below:

The Framework Behind It All

Every single one of my millionaire students, whether they trade long like me or short like Evan, we all follow the same framework.

The biggest stock spikes in the market have the same basic structure. Every spike will look a little different, like a snowflake, but the overarching pattern is the same.

We saw it from all of last week’s biggest runners:

  • High Roller Technologies Inc. (AMEX: $ROLR) spiked 850%*.
  • Springview Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: $SPHL) spiked 1,000%*.
  • Callan JMB Inc. (NASDAQ: $CJMB) spiked 400%*.
  • Venus Concept Inc. (NASDAQ: $VERO) spiked 800%*.

That was just a few of them … Here’s the entire list.

It’s a cycle. Over and over again. It’s how more than 50 regular people have turned their small accounts into seven-figure results.

One trade at a time, with repeating patterns.

In 2026, we’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re using the exact same strategy as always.  And the opportunities are on track to be much bigger than in 2025.

We’ve already seen SPHL spike +1,000%* this year …

There’s more volatility to come. A LOT more.

Don’t sit this year out. Once you learn the underlying framework, you can apply it over and over again on the next hottest stock.

And as we approach the end-of-year 2026 catalyst, I expect this volatility to grow.

There’s no time to waste.

Look For This Pattern From The Hottest Stocks Every Day.

Cheers

 

*Past performance does not indicate future results



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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.
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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”