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Forget The Gym Membership. These Are Your New Year’s Resolutions.

Forget The Gym Membership. These Are Your New Year’s Resolutions.

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 12/31/2025 5 min read
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Happy New Year’s Eve…

In just a few hours, the champagne will be flowing. Confetti will be everywhere. Someone will spill their drink on the carpet.

The clock will hit midnight…

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Image created by ChatGPT

That’s when the New Year’s resolutions will start blurting out.

(And 99% of those resolutions will fail.)

We’ve all seen it hundreds of times before…

January 1st hits. Everyone’s pumped about losing weight, getting organized, or continuing their streak on Duolingo.

By February? The gym lies empty. The language app has 47 unread notifications. The meal prep containers haven’t been touched in weeks.

But in 2026, you will not be like those people. You will not abandon your resolutions like everyone else.

My millionaire students didn’t get to the top of the stock market by passively hoping.

They got there by committing to specific, repeatable behaviors … then following through on those good habits, time and time again.

So forget the gym membership.

Make these resolutions instead…

Resolution #1: I Will Cut Losses Quickly

This is the foundation of everything.

You can find amazing supernovas all year. You can nail pattern recognition.

But if you don’t cut losses quickly, none of that matters.

One horrible loss can wipe out weeks of gains.

Make this your non-negotiable rule for 2026: Every trade gets a stop loss. Every stop loss gets respected. No exceptions.

When the stock hits your stop, you exit. Immediately. No holding and hoping. No “let me give it one more minute.”

Small losses don’t hurt you. They’re just feedback. But big losses that you refuse to accept? Those are account killers.

Resolution #2: I Will Focus On The Best Setups Only

In 2026, commit to quality over quantity.

Only trade A+ setups.

Low float, small (and micro) caps with big potential.

Look for the patterns you’ve studied, the catalysts you understand, and the technical setups that fit your exact criteria.

If a stock doesn’t check all your boxes, you don’t trade it.

Cash is a position. Patience is a skill.

Be opportunistic in this market. You don’t have to trade every day.

A month ago, there were around 10 good small-cap setups every day. Sometimes 15.

Now? 1-2.

More Breaking News

Recognize the market backdrop and adapt to it.

Resolution #3: I Will Study, Study, STUDY!

You know what separates my millionaire students from the 90% of traders who lose money? 

The hours they put into studying.

They spent months (sometimes years) studying before they found consistency.

They reviewed thousands of charts, analyzed past runners, and most importantly, learned from past mistakes.

And they never stopped.

Make 2026 the year you get serious about your education.

Invest in your knowledge account before your brokerage account.

Review past charts every weekend. Study former runners to understand what patterns repeat. Journal every single trade and analyze what went right or wrong.

Losing traders spend more time scrolling social media looking for ideas than actually studying price action.

Do the opposite.

Resolution #4: I Will Hold Myself Accountable

You can commit to cutting losses quickly. You can promise to focus on the best setups. You can dedicate time to studying.

But if you don’t hold yourself accountable when you break those rules, you’ll keep making the same mistakes.

Keep a trading journal.

Log every trade, entry price, exit price, why you entered, whether you followed your rules, and what you learned.

Review that journal weekly. Look for patterns in your behavior, not just in the stocks.

The journal doesn’t lie. The numbers don’t lie.

And when you catch yourself breaking a rule, own it.

Don’t make excuses.

Don’t blame the market.

You broke the rule.

Acknowledge it, learn from it, and don’t do it again.

How To Make 2026 Your Year

These are your resolutions:

  • Cut losses quickly. 
  • Focus on the best setups only. 
  • Study constantly. 
  • Hold yourself accountable.

And the most important one…

Your New Year’s Resolution For 2026.

You can easily stick to these commitments.

Write them down. Put them somewhere you’ll see them every day.

Then actually follow through.

Here’s to your best trading year yet…

Cheers,

Tim

 

*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”

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