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Trading Lessons

The Real Lesson for Traders This Christmas

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 12/24/2025 5 min read

The stock market is closed today for Christmas.

Tomorrow we’re back to the grind for one of the biggest trade opportunities of the year …

But today, we take a moment to appreciate our loved ones and give gifts.

I especially love this time of year because I love to give back.

For me, trading is about much more than market gains. I donate all my trading profits to charity.

For example, right now we’re working to help save the Amazon Rainforest. There’s a post below with more details:

I’m telling you this to help you realize: We can spread Christmas cheer and give gifts all year long.

Don’t let the cheer die after the holidays.

I know there’s a lot of negativity in the world right now. I see it every day online. But we don’t have to contribute to it.

Maybe you don’t have enough money or time on your hands to give back. That’s OK.

Once upon a time, I was just a college kid in a dorm room. I didn’t have a way of giving back …

Now they’re millionaire traders.

A lot of my millionaire students have joined my donations and given back.

So, you might not have the means right now. But your day is coming. And in the meantime, I have a gift to give you.

There’s a massive trade on the horizon. It could be the biggest of the year. And you have just enough time to prepare …

My Trading Process In 2026

There’s a lot of money flowing into the market right now.

And it’s not just AI investment …

Retail investors bought a net $155.3 billion worth of single stocks and ETFs in the first half of 2025.

That’s the largest retail inflow since tracking began in 2014, passing the $152.8 billion that we saw during the 2021 meme-stock boom.

We’ve indeed seen multiple +1,000% spikers in 2025. And the trend in the market shows a probable increase in retail activity into 2026.

We directly contribute to that data. You and me and the rest of my students.

The question is, are you on the winning side? Or the losing side?

My millionaire students and I use a specific process to trade this volatility.

The more volatility, the larger the opportunity for gains. As a result, I’m excited about more retail traders entering the market.

But I’m worried they’re trading without a true process.

I can see the greed and the degeneracy almost every day due to the massive short squeezes that shoot higher despite the lack of credible news.

Get stuck on the wrong side and this volatility could easily wipe out your account.

But with the right patterns, these massive moves become key setups to grab calculated gains.

When a stock spikes +1,000%, it’s easier to take 10% – 20% … Even more.

My trading process isn’t changing in 2026. If anything, I’m getting more aggressive.

The Biggest Trade of the Year

When the market opens tomorrow, December 26, I’m searching for one of the biggest trade setups to end the year.

Every Friday, I look for a specific pattern as we approach the market close.

The pattern relies on information inefficiencies. And during holiday weekends, information inefficiencies are at an all-time high as traders celebrate and only half-pay attention to the market.

Now that it’s almost Christmas weekend, this pattern’s effectiveness is turned up to an eleven … 

This weekend trade pattern is just one setup that I use to trade. As stocks spike and crash in the market, they follow a life cycle that offers a few trading angles.

In 2026, use my entire trading framework to capitalize on every angle of these volatile runners.

My weekend pattern plus:

  • First green day breakouts.
  • Dip buys.
  • Morning panic dip buys.
  • Overnight swing trades.

>> All For Just $1 <<

Merry Christmas.

Cheers

*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”