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Trading Psychology

From Sleepless Nights To Total Freedom

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/7/2026 5 min read

Stock trading can offer the purest freedom that exists in the world.

All it takes is a laptop and a wifi connection.

You can go from stressing about bills, laying awake at night, to traveling around the world, sleeping soundly in some of the most amazing destinations.

That’s what trading has done for me and my now 40+ millionaire students.

And it can for you too.

See my post below:

I just traded a volatile stock that spiked 69% after it announced record breaking sales growth for 2025.

I took the meat of the move, a small profit.

But there’s something holding me back … Something that doesn’t apply to you or any of my millionaire students.

You can trade these stocks, and you can do better than me.

You Have An Incredible Opportunity

I’m not optimized for trading.

For starters, I never had a mentor. And my trading still suffers from that lack of instruction.

On my profit chart below, you can see I’ve made $7.9 million in the market since I started, just before 2000.

It’s nothing to moan and groan about …

Source: Profit.ly

But my top student, Jack Kellogg has made $24.8 million since he started in 2017.

His profit chart is below:

Source: Profit.ly

With less time, Jack has made more money than me in the market because he had a process for success.

A process that I built after wandering around in the dark on my own for years.

In addition to the lack of a mentor, my schedule is not optimized for trading. Even more so than my students who still work a day job.

Read my trade notes below from January 7. The exit comments illustrate my point pretty well.

Source: Profit.ly

I know that a lot of traders also have a day job. And time is our biggest constraint. But I doubt that you’re busier than me.

Be honest, do I look well rested to you?

Instagram

You can do better than me in the market.

Just like Jack Kellogg and several other students who outpace my gains.

All it takes is a good understanding of my trading strategy.

A Strategy For Success

On January 7, Innovative Eyewear Inc. (NASDAQ: $LUCY) announced record breaking 65% annual sales growth in 2025.

The price immediately spiked after the news broke. And less than an hour after the market opened, the move reached a 69% gain.

I took the meat of the move on an attempted breakout during premarket hours. And I sold too early because my schedule is absolutely crazy.

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

LUCY chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
LUCY chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

This was a 4% profit.

It’s nothing huge. But thanks to my trading strategy:

  • The risk was low.
  • My exposure to the market was incredibly brief.
  • And we can reuse this pattern on the next hottest stock.

Small gains add up

A 4% gain, day after day, would rival the SPY’s 16% yearly gain from 2025 within the week.

That’s the power of these big spikes from small-cap stocks. We can take the meat of the move for a percent gain that far outpaces the larger market.

And with a specific strategy, our risk is completely defined and minimized.

Take the meat of the move from the next big stock spike.

Use This Trading Pattern

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”