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I’m finally revealing my #1 trading secret

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 3/31/2026 5 min read
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After 25 years of trading and teaching, $8 million in profits, and thousands of individual setups … there’s one killer edge I’ve kept close to my chest.

I’ve never shared this publicly, with anyone.

I’ve talked about everything else openly. My wins, my losses, and my most bone-headed mistakes. I’ve been the most transparent trader alive.

But I’ve held this one thing back, until today…

Image created by Google Gemini
Image created by Google Gemini

Partly because (if I’m being honest) I wasn’t sure the world was ready for it…

I’ve been teaching since 2008. I’ve created over 50 millionaire students. And every single one of them arrived at this same conclusion on their own, without me telling them.

Like they discovered it independently and came back to report the same finding.

Jack Kellogg started as a valet who barely knew what a stock was. Last year, he averaged $25,722 per day.* He turned a measly $7,000 into over $27 million in verified trading profits…*

Matthew Monaco recently made $100,000 in one month … on one specific setup.* When it’s there, he takes it. When it’s not, he walks away. No exceptions.

Eduardo lost money for five years straight. His wife supported him the whole time. Today, he’s approaching $3 million in verified profits.* And he just bought a mansion with a small portion of his gains:

Tim Grittani started with $1,500 and turned it into over $16 million.* More than double what I’ve made in half the time.

Mari became my first female millionaire student after stepping away from trading entirely and coming back stronger.

Tim Bohen was one of my first students. Now he runs StocksToTrade, the most technologically advanced trading platform on earth.

These are people with completely different backgrounds, ideas, and personalities.

But they all had the same answer to my question.

I’ve been sitting on this for years. Waiting for the right moment to share it.

So here it is…

The one thread that connects every millionaire student I’ve ever taught…

You ready?

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THERE IS NO SECRET.

Want to become a millionaire trader?

You have to follow the same four steps I’ve talked about every single day for two decades…

1. Cut Losses Quickly

Every trade gets a stop loss. Every stop loss gets respected. When the stock hits your stop, you exit. Immediately. No holding and hoping. Small losses are feedback. Big losses you refuse to accept are account killers. One horrible loss can wipe out weeks of gains.

2. Focus On The Best Setups Only

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Only trade A+ setups. Small caps and micro caps with low floats. If a stock doesn’t check all your boxes, don’t trade it. Cash is a position. Patience is a skill.

3. Study, Study, STUDY!

You know what separates my millionaire students from the 90% who lose? The hours they put into studying. Review past charts every weekend. Study former runners. Journal every single trade. Losing traders spend more time scrolling social media than studying price action. Do the opposite.

4. Hold Yourself Accountable

Keep a trading journal. Log every trade. Review weekly. When you catch yourself breaking a rule, own it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t blame the market. You broke the rule. Acknowledge it, learn from it, don’t do it again.

Those are the first steps to The Millionaire Formula…

Are you ready to solve the rest?

Cheers,

 

Tim Sykes

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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”