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Penny Stock Basics

10 Key Stock Market Lessons From My First Student

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/20/2023 9 min read

UPDATE: Within a few weeks of creating my first millionaire student I also created my 2nd millionaire student as CNN Money wrote about HERE)

My trading challenge students know how dedicated I have been to the goal of creating a millionaire with my trading strategy and as I posted HERE on Facebook late Friday, I have finally accomplished that goal.

Just over 2 years into challenging myself to focus solely on creating a millionaire (instead of focusing on exposing scams as much), one of my top trading challenge students has crossed the $1 million mark in profits as you can see in this new video I just made:

I thought that my first subscriber to cross $1 million in profits would my trading challenge student Tim Grittani, given his ability to make $200,000 in one day (read how he did that HERE) and watch this video of how far he’s come:

…but alas, he’s at $932,000 in profits (see all his trades HERE) so he’s not that far behind, but not quite at $1 million yet.

I must stress that while hitting $1 million is nice, making money in the stock market is a marathon not a sprint and this $1 million milestone is much more symbolic than anything else…just like when I crossed $3 million in profits a few months back (I’m now at $3.2 million, see all my trades HERE)

This is the picture of my 1st millionaire student:

apologies for sometimes being a jerk
© Millionaire Media, LLC

Memorize it and let Michael Goode’s face haunt you until you reach $1 million in trading profits too.

I’ve written about Michael Goode at various times during his journey to $1 million, but there’s something special about hitting this milestone and my team and I have something very special in store to celebrate Michael’s milestone (leave comments if you think you can guess what we have planned!)

After all, he’s come along way since his first year as my student — just 4 years ago — when he hadn’t even reached $100,000 in profits yet with my strategy:

Now he’s at $1,080,000 in profits, earning roughly $987,000 over the past 4 years 🙂

This is also a crowning moment for me as in blog posts like this from late 2012 and in nearly every video like the one below I talk about creating a millionaire and now that that has been accomplished I’m even more inspired to create more millionaires and multi-millionaires.

Ironically, I have my fair share of haters who think I’m a scam and that all my luxurious photos on Instagram HERE and videos on Youtube HERE are for show and there’s nothing behind it all…

…as I wrote about the specific reasons why I teach and as I categorized my ignorant haters HERE, anybody who is competent in the least could see that my newsletters come with daily watchlists, trade alerts, chatroom access and a 1,000+ video lesson library to help people learn every single detail of my successful strategy; I only share the pictures and videos of my life to inspire people to study harder to put in the time and effort required to learn the skills that millionaires possess.

After dedicating my life to creating a millionaire for the past few years and now finally creating one — the first of many to come a this young trading challenge student is also approaching millionaire status — I can now say beyond a shadow of doubt that my strategy’s ability to create millionaires is not limited solely to me and my sharing my incredible life serves as an inspiration to show what’s possible FOR OTHERS TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY, not just me.

You can see all of Michael Goode’s trades and $1.08 million in profits HERE and I’ve posted 10 key lessons you can take away from his hitting $1 million below, but be sure to watch this new video if you’re more of a visual learner (I know I am :))

1. Look for month-over-month progress: As Michael Goode wrote in this great blog post from earlier this year, he said he “must be doing something right” since his average monthly gains have kept rising gradually.

2. Be skeptical, but give me a chance: As Michael Goode initially wrote HERE, he thought I was full of shit for claiming I could teach people to get rich…we debated and he decided it was worth a try…now he’s a millionaire.

The cool thing about being 100% real is I don’t care if you doubt me at first, it’s probly a good thing…but give me a chance and start watching some of my free video lessons HERE and apply for my trading challenge when you want to take your trading to a new level.

Within a year of giving me a chance, Goode had written THIS followup to his initial ignorant critique of me after he had made roughly $77,000…now just 4 years later, he’s a millionaire.

3. Don’t look to get rich trading penny stocks: In the middle of this video where I show never-before-seen footage of Michael Goode, he says he was never looking to get rich, he just wanted to make a decent living…by not focusing on hitting grand slams, my students are often surprised just how quickly the profits add up…those who want to make $1 million right away usually strike out…I didn’t invent these rules, I just see what kind of thinking works times and time again.

4. Repetition is gooooooood: Michael Goode focuses mainly on the same kinds of patterns over and over, just as I teach in this free webinar…Tim Grittani has had similar success by trying out a bunch of strategies and then refining down to just a few and then rinsing and repeating.

5. Being wrong is okay: Michael Goode’s trades HERE show he has a great many losses and yet he’s still managed to become a millionaire all within just a few years…cutting losses quickly is key when you’re wrong and the times Michael hasn’t has led to some of his biggest losses that have prevented him from being up $1.3 or even $1.5 million by now.

6. Penny stocks rock: No matter how much the major financial media outlets want to ignore them (or take money to feature ads from corrupt penny stock promoters), penny stock trading offers a viable strategy to those looking to make six or even seven figures…as Michael Goode says, the competition in the penny stock world is much easier than anywhere else in finance; do you think you’ll do better in basketball against Michael Jordan or midgets (mental midgets in the case of penny stocks)

7. Stay humble and don’t force trades: Michael Goode doesn’t trade every single day and contrary to the bullshit belief that you need to have your money working for you every single day, sometimes the best trade is to do nothing and sit and wait for something worthwhile to pop up…in the meantime you can watch my 30 classic video lessons HERE 🙂

8. There is a penny stock community of good people and we like helping each other: Thanks to websites like Profitly and Investimonials and successful penny stock traders like myself, Michael Goode and Tim Grittani, there is a rising tide of helpful people/traders in the penny stock world like nothing that has ever existed before.

As you can see from the nearly 400 people who have congratulated Michael Goode and me in just the past 2 days on this great achievement, we’re changing lives with education and good helpful information to a group of people who have only been scammed in the past…welcome to the future as transparency changes this industry for the better.

9. Michael Goode’s success isn’t due to him being smart or a great trader: As he says repeatedly in videos and webinars, he acknowledges he isn’t a great trader…and yet he’s now a millionaire.

How is this possible?

Because as I’ve been teaching and as slowly but surely my trading challenge students are beginning to understand, when you have such ignorant competition (part of the reason why I happily engage in my haters — to put on a display of EXACTLY who your competition is in penny stocks), you really can’t help but make money, sometimes lots of it, once you learn the patterns, rules and best trade setups.

10. It’s good to celebrate being a millionaire: As Michael Goode calmly tweeted this:

My team and I were already hard at work putting together something very special for Michael and his family (guess what we’re doing HERE)…just as we’ll do for every single trading challenge student who makes $1 million or more…this is my life’s work and I don’t take it lightly or calmly…I’m going to inspire ALL of you want to make $1 million and change your life by learning my new Trading Strategy.


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Author card Timothy Sykes picture

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

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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”