Why I Want You To Lose

You read that subject line right.

While everyone else in this industry is wishing you holiday profits, pumping you up with motivational garbage about “crushing it” and “going to the moon…”

I’m hoping you lose.

Not because I want you to fail. Because I want you to succeed.

If you look at the journeys of my 50+ millionaire students, you will find NONE of them had immediate success or even much success in their first 6-12 months, their beginnings, like mine, are filled with endless bone-headed mistakes, but the key to their success is learning NOT to…

— Timothy Sykes (@timothysykes) December 8, 2025

I’ve helped create over 50 millionaire students.*

You know what they all have in common?

None of them had immediate success.

Zero. Not one.

Even Jack Kellogg (who turned $7,500 into over $25 million)…*

Or Matt Monaco (who made $900,000 in the past five months)…*

If you look at their journeys, their first 6 to 12 months are filled with the same pattern:

Bone-headed mistakes, blown opportunities, and easily avoidable missteps.

They bought pumps at the top. They held losers too long. They ignored their stop losses. They revenge-traded after getting stopped out. They FOMO’d into setups they didn’t understand.

Every mistake you can imagine. They made it.

Just like I did when I started.

But one thing separated them from the 90% of traders who fail:

They didn’t make the same mistakes over and over.

They lost early, lost smart, and took invaluable lessons from every single error.

Now, they’re all millionaires.*

And that’s not an accident…

This Is Why You Need To Take Losses…

The Best Lessons Don’t Come From Wins

Wins barely teach you anything.

You buy a stock. It goes up. You sell.

You feel smart, accomplished, and validated.

But what did you actually learn?

That you got lucky on timing? That the setup happened to work this time?

You’re not walking away from that with a priceless lesson.

Losses teach you everything.

A loss forces you to ask the hard questions:

• “Why did I enter this trade?”

• “Did I follow my rules or did I break them?”

• “Where was my stop loss, and did I actually cut it there?”

• “Was this a valid setup, or did I get FOMO and chase?”

• “What would I do differently next time?”

Those questions build pattern recognition, expose your weaknesses, and force you to refine your process.

Stop Fearing Losses

Nearly every trader fears losses in the beginning.

They treat every minor red day like a disaster, every tiny loss like a failure…

So they actively avoid risk. They stop trading after a loss.

And 90% of them lose money with no improvement at all.

Year after year. Same mistakes. Same results.

Why? Because they never learned from their losses.

They just kept making the same errors on a loop, hoping something would magically click.

It doesn’t work that way.

If you’re new to trading, or if you’re still struggling to find consistency, you need to hear this:

Early losses are small investments in your trading education.

Every mistake you make with a small account is a lesson you won’t have to learn later when the stakes are higher (and the losses more devastating).

Every blown trade that forces you to examine your process is building the discipline you’ll need to scale up.

Every time you cut a loss quickly instead of hoping it comes back, you’re programming the right behavior into your brain.

Grow your “knowledge account” first.

More Breaking News

• Strategic Moves Propel CCH Holdings: Stock Soars
• Needham Upgrades Ichor Holdings to Buy Amid Positive Forecasts
• Huntington Bancshares Faces Earnings Miss, Market Considers Impacts
• Itau Unibanco Announces Q4 Earnings as Investor Interest Grows

That’s how you build long-term fortitude, wherewithal, and ruthlessness…

The One Rule That Changes Everything

All that said, your losses have to be controlled.

There’s a massive difference between a small smart loss and a catastrophic dumb one.

A smart loss: You enter a trade with a plan. The setup fails. You cut it at your predetermined stop, down 5% to 7%.

You journal the mistake, vow not to make it again, and move on with your life.

A dumb loss: You chase a stock at the top. It reverses. You hold, hoping it comes back. You’re down 15%, then 25%, then 40%.

Now your account has taken a kick to the chest when it should’ve been a slap on the wrist.

Smart losses teach you. Dumb losses destroy you.

Rule #1: Cut losses quickly.

If you can master this one rule, you can survive long enough to learn everything else.

Small losses don’t hurt your account. They don’t damage your psychology. They don’t put you in a hole you can’t climb out of.

They just provide feedback. And feedback helps you improve.

What I Really Mean

When I say “I hope you lose this week,” I’m not wishing ill will on you.

What I really mean is:

• I hope you take trades that test your rules.
• I hope you take a handful of controlled losses that expose gaps in your process.
• I hope you cut those losses quickly, journal what went wrong, and adjust for next time.
• I hope you build the pattern recognition that only comes from reps, even when those reps don’t go your way.

Because that’s how all 50 of my millionaire students did it.*

If you’re waiting to trade until you’re “ready,” you’ll never start.

If you’re avoiding risk because you’re afraid of losses, you’ll never learn.

Even the world’s most successful traders still make mistakes.

They lose on trades all the time. They just cut those losses before they become disasters.

They have bad days, bad weeks, even bad months.

But they study those periods, learn from them, and come back stronger.

That’s the difference.

So this week, don’t hope for profits.

Hope for lessons. Hope for growth. Hope for progress.

Write a letter to Santa, put it next to his milk and cookies…

Cheers,

Tim Sykes

*Past performance does not indicate future results