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Trading Psychology

Choose Your Own Path to Profits

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 10/27/2022 5 min read

What would you do with $10 million?

Would you quit your day job?

Travel the world?

Take care of your family?

Jack Kellogg jumped headfirst into my Millionaire Challenge in 2017.

This year, he surpassed $10 million in lifetime trading profits.

All his trades are posted right here…

Jack stood up in front of hundreds of traders at our Traders Summit in Miami and relayed his story.

He described the thousands of hours he spent studying the material available.

No joke, you could watch videos and read posts available to Millionaire Challenge members 24/7, and it would take you more than a year.

The thing is, that’s Jack’s story.

I can teach anyone how to reach those same heights.

But only YOU can determine the path to get there.

Jack started young, before he could legally buy beer, and used that to his advantage.

He created a schedule that allowed him to spend hours upon hours studying hard to reach his goals.

But what about someone who’s the breadwinner in a nuclear family, supporting a spouse, 2.5 kids, and a mortgage?

What does their journey look like?

That’s what I want to help you discover today.

You see, the work we do and the concepts we study don’t change.

All we need to do is design a plan that fits into our lives that reaches the same endpoint.

Here’s how you do that.

Rank Your Priorities

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Mark Croock is a great example of a student with a different life and set of priorities.

I met Mark as a Millionaire Challenge student way back in 2010.

He’d always been interested in trading, starting with his bar-mitzvah money, just like me.

Before becoming a full-time trader, Mark was a public accountant.

When he decided to dive in, he took the ambitious step to quit his job to free up his time to trade.

Despite bumps and starts along the way, Mark stuck with it until he hit that $1 million milestone in 2018.

Today, when Mark isn’t trading, he’s spending time with his family.

Both Mark and Jack made trading their #1 priority.

If you’re decades into your career and paying to put kids through college, quitting your job to trade full-time may not be feasible.

That doesn’t mean you can’t get to the same place.

It just means trading becomes your first priority after necessities.

So, if you’re paying for a mortgage and putting kids through college, keep at it.

But your free time should be spent learning to trade.

Schedule Your Study

sykes studying on laptop
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Humans crave structure.

Don’t just say, “I’m going to study 8 hours this weekend.”

Actually pencil in the time to do it.

Give yourself specific hours to work on trading.

Keep in mind, there are different types of education available in my Millionaire Challenge.

I included everything from videos to blogs and even webinars you can listen to in the car.

And make the time you study a regular event.

It’s fine to slip in extra hours here and there. But make sure you set up a realistic schedule you can commit to.

Plan Your Path

conclusion reversal cadlestick
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There is A LOT of material to cover on your way to becoming a millionaire trader.

Some of you have no experience while others have years under your belt.

Create a plan with milestones that cover the topics you need to round out your trading education.

For example. Many traders come to me with years of experience but lack the ability to turn a profit.

Start simple.

Learn how to identify the 7-Step Penny Stock Framework.

From there, start to learn simple strategies like panic dip buys.

Practice those over and over until you can consistently turn a profit.

Use the material provided to students to answer any questions you come up with along the way.

Set a goal for each month. Then, back into a plan to get there based on your schedule.

Keep This in Mind

The only difference between where you are and the success you want to achieve is time and effort.

—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

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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”