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Proof That Small Gains Add Up Over Time

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 8/6/2026 4 min read
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Imagine if you started trading 9.5 years ago (January 2017)…

You faced obstacle after obstacle…

But you stuck with it and FINALLY crossed $200K in gains yesterday (August 5, 2026)…

One of my most dedicated students just did it.

And she did it one small win at a time….

Singles Add Up

I’ve been saying this for years but her story is a GREAT reminder of why it’s so important to have the right mindset:

Can you believe Jamel has been a Trading Challenge student since 2017!

It hasn’t always been easy, she had to overcome obstacles to reach this point.

But guess what? She has the right mindset and I’m SO proud of her.

Do you want to know how she did it?

One Small Trade At a Time

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Like all of my successful students, Jamel started with small wins and cut her losses quickly.

Here are a few of her earliest trades:

It’s important to point out that Jamel wasn’t profitable at the start of her journey.

In fact…

She Lost Money for 18-Months

How much did she lose?

$7,557 by July 2018…

Source: Profit.ly

It was November of that year before Jamel got back to break-even.

If you think about it, that takes a LOT of belief. But Jamel believed in herself and she stuck with it.

Want to know something cool?

She has an 87.8% win rate! That’s CRAZY!

You can check out Jamel’s win rate, trades, and chart here.

Give Jamel props, she’s earned it!

I’m confident that as long as she keeps taking singles, she’s on her way to achieving all her goals.

Do you want to know how to grow a small account over time like Jamel?

Millionaire Moves for Future Millionaires

Remember, it takes time, dedication, and the perseverance that all my top students have shown.

Image created by Google Gemini

Here’s my simple, 3-step plan:

  1. Grow Your Knowledge Account First. Understand that you have to protect your capital as you grow your knowledge account. That might mean losing for a while. Keep your losses small to give your knowledge and experience a chance to grow.
  2. Be Willing To Adapt. You have to try different patterns and strategies. For example, Jamel started with penny stocks. Now she mostly trades S&P 500 options.
  3. Use Every Tool and Guide We Offer. Let me be blunt: there are a LOT of scammers, fake gurus, and charlatans out there. They have ZERO interest in actually helping you. Our mission is to help you gain freedom. Notice I didn’t say it was gonna be easy. It’s not. But it IS worth the effort.

Speaking of tools…

FREE New After-Hours Tool

My team and I have been working on this for the past few months and I’m SO excited to finally launch it.

After-hours trading has been absolutely ON FIRE since the end of the PDT rule.

And guess what?

The biggest moves of the day have been happening AFTER the closing bell.

Get my after-hours watchlist free (every trading day) AND get my new free guide, The Second Session.

Yes, Tim! Send Me the Watchlist!

Key Takeaway

First, a massive congratulations to Jamel.

Keep it up, you are an inspiration to others! (Just don’t get cocky, okay?)

I also want to point out how nice it is to see another upcoming female trader.

We need MORE female traders and MORE female millionaires.

Let’s GOOOO!

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”