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Trading Lessons

Top Lessons From a Record Trading Month

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 2/3/2026 5 min read

It’s early February …

There’s still time to get on the right track and flip your account in 2026.

For example, one of my most recent millionaire students just cemented a record trading month in January. And a bulk of it came in the final week.

This isn’t investing, where you have to wait years for your account to grow.

One of the stocks my student traded spiked 400%*.

For comparison, the S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) gained 17% in 2025. Last week’s runner spiked 23x the market’s yearly gain … And we’re seeing new spikes like this every week.

My student recorded a perfect video about his record month, it explains:

  • What’s working right now.
  • How he achieved the best trading week of his career.
  • The best setups to study for repeating patterns.

Forget about lazy mutual funds and your father’s family banker … This isn’t your average financial fluff.

My students and I are targeting the most explosive market setups every day.

The kind of moves that can turn small-accounts into generational wealth in a few months time.

And they’re happening right now.

Strati’s Stock Market Success

My millionaire student, and lead trainer of the inner circle, Strati, pulled a personal record from the market in January 2026.

That brings his total career gains to $1.2 million and counting.

The details from his video lesson, posted January 31, might surprise you …

Strati wasn’t making much progress to begin the year.

His thought process was to start 2026 with caution. To only focus on the best setups, and let everyone else’s New Year’s excitement drive the momentum

The first few weeks he would make a few thousand, then lose a few thousand.

And he started to worry that he was too cautious. Maybe his plays weren’t going to show up. Maybe he should get more aggressive. But he stayed the course.

And in the last week of the month, he banked big time!

Key Setups

Some of the easiest and strongest setups for new traders to recognize is the breakout.

There were three strong breakouts from January that Strati shared in his video lesson.

  • Movano Inc. (NASDAQ: MOVE) spiked 400%.
    • Starti also played a dip buy setup on this stock.
  • Brand Engagement Network Inc. (NASDAQ: BNAI) spiked 890%*.
  • Namib Minerals (NASDAQ: NAMM) spiked 650%*.

Their charts are posted below:

MOVE chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
MOVE chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
BNAI chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
BNAI chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
NAMM chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
NAMM chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

He also took some stabs at panic dip buy setups on the iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV).

This asset imploded last week after months of strong momentum.

On the SLV chart below, every candle represents one trading minute:

SLV chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
SLV chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

Early in January, Strati’s account was moving sideways. He couldn’t find setups that he liked. He had a few small wins, and a few small losses …

More Breaking News

But instead of getting discouraged, he stuck to the process. And as a result, he was ready to capitalize when the best plays showed up.

The Next Opportunity for Gains

We’re always seeing stocks follow my trading patterns in the market.

Pay attention …

This price action repeats because people are predictable during times of high stress. Like when they have money in a stock that’s spiking +100% intraday.

As long as people continue to trade in the market, these patterns will endure.

And thanks to the volatility, this recurring price action is a perfect vehicle for those with a small account.

Need more proof? Another trader in our community just turned his $5k account into $493k … In just 60 days.

That’s only two months. What will you be doing two months from now?

Here’s the process he used.

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”