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Trading Tips-Tim Sykes Penny Stock

Eliminate This Four-Letter Word From Your Trading

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 10/27/2022 5 min read

Mark Zuckerberg has lost more than 60% of his net worth this year, despite several of his platforms, like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, reaching record users.

His stock, META Platforms, was taken to the woodshed after the company announced it would invest heavily into the metaverse.

Mark Zuckerberg is in LOVE with the metaverse even though it’s losing his company billions of dollars each quarter.

Love has its place in relationships, charity, and helping others. It has no place in the world of investing and trading.

Investors who fell in love with SPACs got destroyed…

Investors who fell in love with Meme stocks got annihilated…

Investors who fell in love with FANG stocks got smacked silly…

But it’s not just investors who get seduced by “the story.” Traders get caught up in it too.

They start believing that one trade:

  • Will set them up for financial freedom
  • Get back all their losses
  • Prove to others they are smart
  • Dispell all the haters

Psychologists say love is the strongest emotion. That’s why it’s so dangerous to fall in love with a stock…and, more so…a specific trade.

Over my 20 years in trading, I can’t tell you how many traders have been wiped out because they stayed with a trade too long because they loved the setup or the catalyst behind the trade.

Even I once fell in love with a play that cost me $500K.

Love Is Not The Answer

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Trading is about finding setups where you believe the risk vs. reward is in your favor.

Trade enough favorable setups while being conscious of your risk, and your account will grow steadily over time.

Now, while that sounds simple, the process doesn’t happen overnight.

In fact, several of my millionaire students took months, some years, before they became consistently profitable.

It starts with accepting that it won’t be easy. You’ll need to study, be willing to learn from your mistakes, and believe in the process.

So let’s talk about the process for a little bit.

In the beginning, you probably have little to no experience with stocks. However, you’ve heard about some of the success stories and would like to have your money work for you.

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Most people look for shortcuts. They’ll search for “hot picks” or someone with a good track record, hoping they can make some quick money without breaking a sweat.

However, emotions can get in the way. It will be hard to manage the trade if you don’t know why a stock is moving, the catalyst behind it, and the levels you should be watching.

That’s why I tell folks not to mirror my trades. Instead, I ask them to learn the setup and the what and why behind my decision-making.

Many of my millionaire students trade options, even though I don’t. Others have gone on to have greater success than I have. Jack Kellogg and Tim Grittani have cracked the 8-figure profit club.

They wouldn’t have achieved that level of success if they were “copycat” traders.

Once folks realize they can’t copy their way to the top, they start looking for other shortcuts. For example, finding a “homerun” trade will set them up for life.

While these trades exist, (I’ve been fortunate to nail several of them throughout my career) they’re just cherries on top of a sundae for me.

Sticking with the baseball reference, I swing for contact and aim for singles and doubles.

And while I strike out plenty, I take small enough losses where I don’t have to constantly dig myself out of a hole.

That’s because, for me, a trade is just a trade. I know if I have more good ones than bad, I will make money over time.

It’s how I’ve been profitable this year, even though most of Wall Street has gotten wrecked.

As you advance in your journey, you’ll learn that success is boring. It’s doing the right things over and over again.

If you want to fall in love while trading, don’t do it with a stock or a specific trade…fall in love with the process.

Now, if you don’t know where to start, I want to help you.

I developed a 30-Day Bootcamp designed to set you up for future success.

If you decide to take me up on it, I’ll show you how to build a foundation and master the fundamentals, walk you through the strategies and patterns that have made me over $7.4 million, and take you behind the scenes on how I trade for consistent profits.


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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”