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How To Stop Wasting The Biggest Opportunity In Trading History

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 2/10/2026 7 min read

I don’t think you “get it” (yet)

Now is the best time in history to be a trader. 

Collective knowledge, education, and technology have combined into a world where anyone can design their own financial future.

No degree necessary, no geographic limitations.

Twenty-five years ago, trading stocks meant either getting a Series 7 license or calling a stockbroker to execute every single trade at massive commissions. The barriers were enormous, the costs were prohibitive, and access was restricted to Wall Street insiders.

These days, you’re trading in a completely different universe…

You can learn to trade from your phone while sitting in your living room. You have access to the same charts, data, and tools that billion-dollar hedge funds use. You can execute trades in milliseconds for zero commissions.

You have no excuses.

My millionaire student, Jack Kellogg, started as a valet, parking cars.

He used the same tools and platforms available to you, in between pulling Volvos up to soccer moms…

Image created by Google Gemini
Image created by Google Gemini

As of today, he’s made over $24 million in verified lifetime profits.* 

He didn’t have expensive tools or insider connections. He just understood what was available (and dedicated his life to studying)…

If you’re not taking advantage of this moment in history, you’re wasting an opportunity that traders from previous generations could only dream about…

This is how YOU can take advantage of the biggest opportunity in trading history…

1. Online Brokerage Platforms Changed Everything

It’s easy to take mobile brokerage platforms for granted. You’ve probably never used anything else.

But I remember what it was like before online trading existed.

If you wanted to trade pre-2000, you had two options: get a Series 7 license and trade in person, or execute your trades through a licensed stockbroker (who charged you massive commissions on every transaction).

This created a barrier to entry that kept everyday people completely locked out of the markets. Trading was reserved for seasoned professionals and the wealthy.

Then the personal computer arrived, the internet followed, and suddenly a revolution happened.

Non-licensed traders could finally speculate. All they had to do was open a brokerage account, and with a few clicks, they were trading.

Like me.

I started trading in high school with $12,000 of my Bar Mitzvah money.

By the time I graduated from college, I’d grown that initial stake to over $2 million.*

But I never would’ve achieved what I have in the stock market without online trading.

The opportunity simply wouldn’t have existed for a teenager with no connections, no Series 7 license, and no way to get to Wall Street.

2. Access To Information Has Leveled The Playing Field

Online trading didn’t just allow retail traders to execute trades. It also opened the floodgates of market information.

For the first time in history, millions of retail traders have access to the same data as professionals.

Imagine doing market research before the internet…

You’d go to the library and read outdated financial newspapers for hours, just hoping to find relevant information buried in annual reports. Morning newspapers and nightly financial news (hours out of date) were the only sources for market-moving headlines.

You had no access to real-time data, no ability to track price action, no way to see what was happening in the market unless you were physically on the trading floor (or paying thousands of dollars a month for specialized terminals).

You were fundamentally disadvantaged against Wall Street.

Today, you can see every single piece of public information about a company with a few keystrokes.

SEC filings, news catalysts, short interest, float data, insider transactions. It’s all there, instantly, for free.

Wall Street doesn’t have a monopoly on data anymore.

You have the same access they do.

More Breaking News

Are you willing to study it?

3. Technical Analysis Tools Your Dad Could Only Dream Of

Up until the 21st century, charts were drawn on chalkboards.

Professional traders would draw price action by hand, print charts on overhead projectors, or pay thousands of dollars per month for specialty charting services.

Even during the trading heyday of the 1980s, professional brokers relied purely on price quotes. Computers didn’t have the graphical capability to display a simple candlestick chart.

Source

And prices were quoted in fractions (like $21 ¼) since computers couldn’t handle decimals yet.

Now there’s zero gap between the charts industry professionals use and the ones on your screen at this very moment.

You have access to technical analysis tools that the best traders of the past couldn’t even imagine … for free.

One click brings up any chart, on any stock, with any indicator, in any timeframe.

Yet most traders completely take it for granted.

4. Education Is Everywhere (If You’re Willing To Learn)

When I started trading in the late 1990s, there was no one teaching penny stock strategies.

No YouTube videos, online courses, or chat rooms full of traders sharing ideas in real time.

I had to figure everything out through trial and error.

You don’t.

In 2026, education is everywhere.

You can watch millions of YouTube videos breaking down specific trading patterns…

You can join communities of like-minded traders from all around the world.

It’s all right there, at your fingertips…

Because what you don’t want to hear is the most important part…

The Opportunity Alone Isn’t Enough. You Still Need A #NoDaysOff Approach. 

Access to tools and information doesn’t mean automatic success.

It means you have no excuses left.

You can’t blame the system for keeping you out. The barriers are gone.

You can’t blame a lack of information. It’s all instantly available.

You can’t blame expensive tools. Everything you need is cheap (or free).

The only thing standing between you and the life you want is your willingness to study, learn from your mistakes, cut losses quickly, ignore promoters, and take gains into strength.

My millionaire students all started with small accounts (using the same tools you do).

They all took losses in the beginning (just like you have).

But they studied when everyone else was watching TV, built their watchlists when everyone else was sleeping in, and treated trading like a craft to be respected (not a lotto ticket).

Do you have what it takes?

It’s time to find out…

The opportunity is staring you straight in the face.

It’s bigger than it’s ever been in human history.

What are you going to do with it?

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”