Video Synopsis  

In this video: Is it really possible to find success as a penny stock trader? Today, Tim schools Matt on some of the biggest success stories from his Trading Challenge.

Tim profiles several of his top students, including confirmed millionaires* Tim Grittani, Michael Goode, and Mark Croock, as well as six-figure traders* including Tim Lento, Jack Kellogg, and Kyle Williams. 

(*Please note: these results are not typical. These traders have spent years developing exceptional skills and knowledge. Always remember trading is risky. Never risk more than you can afford.)

All of these traders have found success, but none of them have followed the same path. All traders’ styles and journeys are extremely different … It’s about finding what works for you.

Throughout the conversation, you’ll find key points highlighted. To continue your education, use your “30-Day Trading Starter Kit” guide to study and learn from this lesson. Then, once you’re ready, answer the quiz questions for today’s lessons. 

Also. common stock market terms are highlighted in orange text. You can find the definitions in the “30-Day Trading Boot Camp Glossary.” 

Listen and learn! While there’s no guarantee that you’ll experience these types of gains, it can be helpful to learn from others so that you can learn from their successes and avoid their mistakes.  

6- and 7-Figure Penny Stock Success Stories: Video Transcription and Key Concepts

Matt Monaco:

All right, Tim. So yesterday we talked about what penny stocks are, and why you trade them. Today, I thought we could go into more of your success stories to show some proof about why penny stocks are so awesome. Here’s your Profit.ly chart. Can you see the screen?

Tim Sykes:

Yeah.

Matt Monaco:

All right. So, I want you to walk us through each of these students and really just show the potential of penny stock trading.

Tim Sykes:

Yeah. I mean, first off, understand that 90% of traders lose. So I’m going to start off with that big disclaimer because nine out of 10 traders lose. 

So while we’re going over these charts, it’s exciting. It’s fun. It should inspire you to see what’s possible, but the vast majority of people do not reach these levels.

Why is that? What makes these students so much more successful? It comes down to heart, dedication, patience, and following instructions. 

Key Point: Many Traders Fail

As many as 90% of all traders lose. While it’s exciting to look at these success stories, these results are not typical. These traders worked hard to overcome common trading pitfalls and develop strategies that work for them. 

My chart is nice over 20+ years. But I kinda cut my potential short by teaching over the past 10+ years, which is OK. 

I now trade with a small account and I donate all the profits to charity, but I didn’t have a teacher. I didn’t have rules to follow. I didn’t have instructions. So I learned everything the hard way.

My best lesson was a $500,000 loss. That still stings to this day, but it made me more conservative and it was the best educator of my life. 

Hopefully, you don’t need to lose $500,000 on a trade to get educated. 

But today we’re going to talk about what every single one of these students has done. They’ve learned — a process or multiple processes, a pattern, a strategy or multiple strategies. And they’ve adapted to changing markets. And they’re focused on taking singles.

No matter whether these people have made a few million dollars … Now Tim Grittani is at around $11 million* … It all starts with learning how to make $100, $200, $500, $1,000 dollars at a time, then scaling up over time. 

(*Please note: These results are not typical. Always remember trading is risky. Never risk more than you can afford.)

As you get more confident, you can take bigger positions and be more aggressive. You can cut losses intelligently instead of just quickly. 

There’s a lot that you can do with this, but it’s not a perfect science. I can’t guarantee success. All I can do is guarantee that I’ll teach everything that I’ve learned over the past 20+ years and I guarantee that can only help you.

So I encourage everyone to get inspired by these students and to see what they did right and what they did wrong too. Take a little something from every single trader.

My best lesson was a $500,000 loss. That still stings to this day, but it made me more conservative and it was the best educator of my life. 

Hopefully, you don’t need to lose $500,000 on a trade to get educated. 

Matt Monaco:

Breaking down your stats here, you’ve made over $5 million now … Still, your average gain is only $1,700.* So it’s not just one big trade.

Tim Sykes:

That’s the thing. If I can teach people how to make $1,000 or $2,000 on a trade, that’s it. And then it’s just rinse and repeat over and over and over again. 

Obviously some with a bigger position size, some are going to be losses … but that’s the gist. Can you make $1,000 or $2,000 a thousand times? That’s it.

Key Point: Small Wins Add Up 

The traders featured in this video have built up their profits over time, with many small wins versus a few big ones. 

Matt Monaco:

Yeah. That’s what Tim Grittani did. I mean, now his average gain’s up to $3,800, but he’s also at almost $11 million in profits.* He’s trading with a much larger account.

Tim Sykes:

That’s the thing. Your average gain is going to go up the bigger your account is. Now he’s making $30K, $40K, $50K, sometimes $100K on a trade, where he used to take a smaller position size and made $10K or $5K on the same trade. 

• But look at his winning percentage: 67.88% 
• And his average percent gain: 6.99%

It’s not like he’s picking 100 or 200% winners. He’s winning nearly three-quarters of his trades and he’s making roughly 7%. What’s my average percent win? I don’t even know. Go back to my chart for a sec.

Matt Monaco: 

A little over seven — 7.3%.

Tim Sykes: 

I’m at about 7% too. Seven is my lucky number. Seven is a good number for an average percent gain and I just want people to understand there’s a basic framework. Anybody who’s learning this right now has the benefit of studying what has made us successful.

Matt Monaco: 

Your first millionaire student was Michael Goode. And it’s a pretty similar story, except he’s got a larger percent gain.

Tim Sykes:

So Michael Goode … His average dollar gain is roughly $600 and his winning percentage is lower. So he’s taking many more trades.

He’s not winning as high of a percentage. He’s not winning as high on a dollar percentage, but on a percent basis. He’s taking many more trades and smaller trades where he can have more faith and more confidence. 

He shorts a lot of pump and dumps. He holds them for a few weeks or a few months, and he might win 50%, 60%, or 70% on one trade, and that increases his average percent gains. 

But on average his dollar gains are much smaller and this is good to show because he’s made a little over $2 million.* 

Also, I think it’s interesting that he thought I was full of BS at first. So if anybody doubts me, congratulations. You could be my next millionaire student too. He doubted me, but he gave my strategy a chance. And now he’s done very well.

Matt Monaco: 

Correct. And I mean, we’ve only gone through three so far, but each of those traders trades differently. There’s no one way to do it. The key is just to lock in those small gains and keep the losses small.

Tim Sykes:

That’s the thing here. People need to see that there are different kinds of ways to trade the same stocks. 

Key Point: You Must Develop Your Own Strategy

All of the traders featured in this video have very different approaches to the same types of stocks. Successful traders tend to have this in common: they take the time to figure out a system that works for them and refine it over time.

We all trade very similar stocks, volatile, liquid penny stocks. But some of us, like Michael Goode, like going short for a longer term. Tim Grittani likes going long, for longer time periods. 

I go long for very short time periods. We find what works best for our own personality and own schedule.

Matt Monaco:

Moving on here to Mark Croock … What’s his story?

Tim Sykes:

Mark Croock is now up $1.6 million. He’s having a banger of a year. He made like $100,000 in the past month.* 

His winning percentage is only 53%. He actually still overtrades to this day. His average gain is a little over $1,000, but his average percent gain is very similar to mine, with 7%.

He watched all of my video lessons three times. He’s the reason that all my video lessons are tagged and categorized. So studying literally does pay off. 

He found me … He was working in a cubicle and didn’t like working in a cubicle anymore. He had a job that he hated. Most people hate their jobs, but he looked at that and used it as inspiration to study harder.

Now he has a beautiful family. I went to his wedding. He just had some babies. He’s living in Miami Beach, trying to work on his tan. It’s a pretty cool success story. 

Even when I’m in a trade, he can predict when I’m getting out. He’s in the chat room and he’s like, “Sykes is about to sell.” And it’s right as I’m typing out my sell alert. I was like, “How does this guy know?” Like he’s in my head. He’s like my Jewish brother.

Matt Monaco:

Yeah. And he’s now an awesome resource in the Trading Challenge too. He helps out a ton of people.

Tim Sykes:

Yeah. He helps me mentor other people. I’m very fortunate with him. Tim Grittani and Michael Goode, all of them … They’re really appreciative of the money, the knowledge, and the self-sufficiency. And they’re paying it forward with other Challenge students.

Matt Monaco:

Now, the three people we just went over are millionaires. Here are some up-and-coming students who are crushing it … They’re well on their way to a million dollars. We have Tim Lento.

Tim Sykes:

This is the thing. It’s not just about making seven figures. If you make six figures, that’s still damn good. And Tim Lento is closing in on half a million dollars in profits.*

He primarily shorts pumps using Interactive Brokers. Shorting is tough, but he uses the broker, he holds it, his average gain is roughly 14%. He’s winning 80% of the time.

I don’t think you’re going to find a higher percentage winner than him. He doesn’t trade as often because he’s waiting for these pump and dumps to show up.

He’s just trying to find shares to short, and he’s trying to short as many shares as he can get his hands on. And he’s winning literally like four times out of five, which is awesome.

He’s on his way to being a millionaire. It takes time. It adds up over time. A lot of people say, “Oh, you have so many students. Why only a few millionaires?” 

Well, most of my students start with just a few thousand dollars. You’re not just going to turn $2,000 into a million overnight. 

Key Point: It Takes Time

None of the traders featured in this video became a 6- or 7-figure trader overnight. It has taken many of these traders years to develop a consistently profitable strategy. 

Like I’m saying, it’s step by step. You have to wait for the good setups. You have to wait for the good patterns. You have to be ready. You have to execute. So it does take time. But the cool thing is this is real.

Matt Monaco: 

Yeah. And I mean, when you really break down his numbers, he’s got eight years here on Profit.ly. That comes out to over $50,000 a year, and that includes three years of basically no profitability. So it’s still really good money when you look at it that way.

Tim Sykes:

And it adds up, like year two, year three, year four, year five. What I’m always saying is this is a marathon, not a sprint.

So he found his niche. And now it’s much easier than year one, year two, or even year three for him.

It took him a few years to really perfect it. But now in year five, six, seven … that’s when you’ve really stretched your legs. 

It’s tough. I’ve got to get people through the first few years of studying hard … the disappointment of people wanting money right away.

Matt Monaco: 

Now onto Jack Kellogg, who’s one of your newest six-figure students.* He’s having a great year, too.

Tim Sykes: 

He’s doing amazingly and he’s adapted. He made his first $100K on OTC plays. The OTC market got a lot less liquid, very few perfect plays lately. 

He’s adapted to a lot of the coronavirus stocks and Nasdaq stocks, and now he’s on fire. He made over $70,000 last month. 

It was his birthday the other day, in April 2020. I texted him, and he’s like, “Oh, I only made $27,000 this month.” He’s disappointed because he made nearly triple that the previous month. 

But that’s what this is. Whether you make $27K or $75K, you just have to take it one trade at a time. You’re not going to get paid the same amount. This isn’t like a paycheck that comes bi-monthly. Every single trade matters and adds up.

But if you look at his gains, he’s winning roughly 60% of the time, overtrades a little bit, but his average percent gain is 9%. And he’s making a little over $500 and again, his average dollar gain will start to go up. 

He was trading with a very small account in the beginning. So in the next few years, if he sticks with it, he’ll be a millionaire. And his average dollar gain will probably be over $1,000 too. 

But whether you’re making $600 or $1,000 or $2,000, I really want to hit home the point that it’s a few hundred dollars or a few thousand dollars many times over and over again. It’s not winning every time. 

I like the fact that he’s only winning 60% of the time. Cutting losses quickly, that’s my rule number one. When you’re wrong, don’t let a small mistake turn into a potential big disaster.

Matt Monaco:

And the last one I have here is Kyle Williams, who’s one of your newest six-figure students.* And I mean, he’s got a beautiful profit chart here.

Tim Sykes: 

This is a nice profit chart, but this is actually his second account. If you look at his username, it’s Kylecw2. And he actually had Kylecw as his screen name at first, and I think he lost like $20K or $30K while he was learning. 

He started a new profile because he wanted a new mindset once he turned the corner. So it’s taken him basically four years to get to $200,000 … I think he’s in his fifth year right now. 

In his first year, he was just tinkering. So I want to be fully transparent about that. He had some losses in the beginning, learning what not to do. 

But again, year three, four, five … everything starts connecting. So if you can outlast and stay in the game, even with your early losses, you learn what not to do. You weed that stuff out, you get more disciplined, and then you’re just there.

The key is just being there. You have to be there for the good plays, whether it’s the weed stocks, crypto stocks, or now the coronavirus stocks. In between the hot sectors, there are a few plays here or there. But really, the biggest money is when there’s some hot sector, hot trend, or a crisis — and you’re prepared. 

So you want to learn as much as you can as soon as possible so that when there’s a hot sector, when there’s a crisis, you’re fully prepared and you can capitalize.

Key Point: Education is Key

Preparedness is vital if you want to take advantage of hot sectors and fast-moving penny stocks. Educating yourself on key patterns is one of the best ways to be prepared.

Matt Monaco:

Absolutely. And the common theme, just flipping through all these charts, is it takes usually a couple of years. And then once you get it, you start slow … And then exponentially, you start taking off. Once you understand all the lessons and you’ve been there for those years.

Tim Sykes: 

But also to be fair, let me just warn everyone again, it looks so easy with these … These are some of my top students here who are showing all their trades and studying five, 10, 15 hours a day every day for years. 

So while everyone wants profit charts like this, they’re not usually willing to put in the time to study — whether it’s my videos, DVDs, or webinars. But it’s also just watching markets, testing out different patterns, keeping spreadsheets of different strategies, and tinkering. 

So all of these people have done what I’ve told them to do and now they’re reaping the rewards. But it took a lot of dedication and a lot of hard work. You don’t see that just in these beautiful profit charts.

Matt Monaco: 

And this is awesome to see the potential, if you’re willing to put in that time and willing to study, just what is possible, based on these students.

Tim Sykes:

And this is why I love showing this. This should be an inspiration to every single new trader, understanding that 90% of traders lose and these students are like my best students. 

They’re extraordinary, but at the same time, it is possible. None of them are hugely intelligent. They’ve just studied their butts off and now they’re reaping the rewards of good plays.

Matt Monaco: 

Thanks for sharing this. That’s pretty much all I had today and I can’t wait tomorrow to really just start getting into some of these penny stocks.

Tim Sykes: 

Gold. Cheers.