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Trading While Traveling. What Does Your Dream Life Look Like?

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 3/20/2023 10 min read

Trading While Traveling — that’s my dream life; and I am living it.

What does your dream life look like? Does it involve a lot of money, a beach house, a big mansion along with a fleet of private jets, fancy cars and yachts? Or do you want to live simply and give most or even all of your money away to charity and help the poor, homeless and hungry all over the world? Or is it a mix of most or even just a few of the above?

There’s no one right answer to this question, as we’re all different and all of those things I listed are just examples of different dreams. But, I would venture to guess that nobody’s dream life involves spending the majority of your life studying subjects in school that you’re not really interested in or working for a boss you hate at a company you don’t care about.

I’m here to help you build your own dreams, not someone else’s, as far too many people in the world do in order to pay their bills and put food on the table to take care of themselves and their loved ones. They give up on their own big dreams and wallow in a miserable reality filled with debts, responsibilities and dreariness. 

Imagine a world where you don’t have to worry about your daily expenses, because you are self-sufficient and have financial freedom and thus the world is literally yours to do whatever you want with it whenever you want. You could stay in one place or focus on trading while traveling, or anything in between along with buying whatever luxuries you choose for you and your loved ones all while giving back to charity to help the less fortunate too. 

I know it sounds impossible, or at the very least improbable, the kind of stuff that only happens to somebody else, but I’m here to tell you that life IS possible if you dream big, work and study hard and utilize strategy to achieve your vision over time. And have the patience and persistence to see your vision through to the very end…and yes getting a mentor whose done it all helps speed up your learning curve dramatically.

And no, this grand vision won’t happen overnight, it’s going to take years, if not decades, to truly build out your dream life, and there will be tons of low points, mistakes, and even failures along the way, but the sooner you get started and embark on your journey, the sooner your potential dream life can become a reality so there’s literally no time to waste.

Sure, sure, I’ve made millions of dollars and done it all,** so it’s easy for me to say that the dream life is possible, but am I a math genius or some whiz kid and that’s why I’ve been able to live out my fantasies? Perhaps I just got lucky on one investment or two and my success isn’t replicable? 

Well, actually, I’ve been teaching students now in over 90 countries for 10+ years and already have several millionaire Trading Challenge students and dozens of students who have made six-figures, the kind of money needed to escape the rat race that traps so many people.** I have it so good that I can just focus on trading while traveling.** And, all of my top students have learned on their own, tailoring my lessons to their own lives, their own strengths and weaknesses and while there is no one magic formula for getting rich, there are rules and lessons I’ve learned the hard way over the past 20 years in the stock market that have allowed me not just to make millions of dollars and experience all of the world’s luxuries, along with my creating my own multi-million dollar charity foundation, but also to make my money while visiting 100+ countries.** So, my goal now is to be the mentor to others that I never had.

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And yes, some people on Wall Street have made similar or even greater dollar amounts as I have, but they’ve done it while being chained to their desks, working 16-18 hours/day nonstop, while I’ve made my millions while out exploring our big, beautiful world, having daily adventures, tasting exotic cuisines and mingling with locals from all corners of the Earth and I wouldn’t have it any other way as this is my dream…and now I give my excess millions to charity each year and I’m very proud to do so.

So, which life do you choose for yourself? I choose trading while traveling!  I’m curious to hear so definitely tell me in the comments section of this blog post! Perhaps you like spending your life in an office environment, clocking in and out every day and getting your steady paychecks for all your work, paid based on the number of hours you’ve put in with the possibility of some small bonuses for extra time or extra effort or even business success.

For me and my millionaire students, we don’t have any job security whatsoever (for that matter, those in the regular 9-5 workforce don’t have much either these days!), we don’t get paid hourly or weekly or monthly and yes, sometimes I put in 5-10 hours into researching an investment and I still lose money on it, because my investment thesis turned out to be wrong…that’s right, my pay isn’t proportional to my hours spent working. In fact, sometimes I only put in 5-10 minutes of research and make $10,000+ very quickly when my thesis turns out to be dead on, because I have decades of experience so now my job has become easier over time. **

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If you become a stock trader then you must get used to this eat-what-you-kill mentality and I choose that every single day of the week because it’s not only exciting, it forces you to develop all kinds of skills 9-5ers simply don’t have. And with these new skills, I probably could even join the 9-5 rat race and dominate that field too, but I don’t have the desire to as I love being able to make money from literally anywhere in the world. And there’s a trend of faster Internet becoming more and more available in places you’d least expect as our planet becomes increasingly digital.

Sounds nice, but what’s my life really like? I still work hard every day, but you wanna hear an example of my travel schedule? Sure; a few weeks ago I was in LA with some friends, then onto NYC for some meetings with a quick stop in Miami to hang with my family for a few days before heading to Italy in order to have a pizza tasting competition, while also teaching several of my European students.** And yes, I was trading while traveling.  Since then, I’ve been in Greece trading stocks with a view and working on my tan, eating fresh fish and local lobsters while also taking some extra time to relax during the slower summer months…except, of course, that there has been no slowdown these past 2 years, so I’ve been screwed! 

And, in case I wasn’t busy enough, I flew to Australia to give a TED talk (it’ll be posted soon, don’t worry and please stop asking as of course I’ll tell everyone the second it goes live), then it was onto Bali to the monkey forest and visiting 2 of my charity’s schools that are opening, this time, they’re not in my name as I got tired of naming everything after myself, so I’m naming these 2 schools after my first 2 millionaire students…as I write this post I’m in Ubud, Bali with my top trading challenge student Tim Grittani and his wife, just chilling and relaxing, getting ready for the market open.**

Next, I might stop by Cambodia to check in on how my charity’s new soccer stadium project is progressing, then head over to New Zealand with some friends to dress up like a hobbit and film some spoof videos where I’ll pretend to be Frodo’s long lost Jewish cousin, Jewdo. Seriously.

Why do I do all of this? Because I can and because it’s fun and interesting and mainly because I have the financial freedom that allows me to do this…and did I mention that I took nearly 2 dozen friends and family to Italy and Greece too, all on my dime, because I’ve earned a lot from stock trading and teaching and I save a lot too, in order to spoil the people close to me.

I want you to have vision of what your life can be like if you study hard, not just for an hour or two or even 10 or 100 hours, but thousands of hours of study in whatever subject you love, whether it’s the stock market or something else entirely, it doesn’t matter to me as long as I can reach you and get you to focus on your passion, not your parents passion or what society tells you to focus on in order to earn big money, but whatever truly moves and motivates you as it’s that subject that will lead you to the most success and eventually the dream life too if you work hard enough.

And then not only will you enjoy the freedom you’ve earned for yourself, you’ll cherish the journey you take to get there too because when you focus on what you love, it’s not “work”, it’s like being on a permanent vacation. Whether you’re a travel addict like me or someone whose afraid to go outdoors, or anything in between, working on, mastering and eventually capitalizing on your passion or even passions in life will make you happier than you ever thought possible.

Money can’t buy happiness, but self-sufficiency, accomplishment and freedom can…and then you’ll see how beautiful the world can be!


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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

* 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”