Timothy Sykes is a self-made millionaire known for investing his bar mitzvah gift money while still in high school. Before his graduation, Tim’s portfolio grew from its initial $12,415 to around $100,000. While attending Tulane University in Louisiana, Sykes traded during his free time and graduated with $2 million in assets.

Penny Stocks Bring the Action

Sykes explained his path to success on “The Steve Harvey Show” in 2016. He told Harvey that blue-chip stocks, think IBM and Microsoft, were not built to generate large returns in short periods of time. Penny stocks, he quickly discovered, are simple to understand and profit from.

While there is no one standardized definition of what constitutes a penny stock, most experts agree it refers to any stock that trades below $5 per share.

Sykes explained that a successful penny stock trade requires the investor to be quick and agile: enter a position after certain conditions are met, and get out within hours or days.

In this sense he couldn’t be more right. Penny stocks are volatile and Sykes emphasized the importance of walking away with a profit, even if it is small. After all, small and consistent profits add up to big gains over the months and years.

Timothy Sykes teaches how to trade penny stocks to anyone who is interested in learning. His platform Profit.ly features multiple courses at different price points that are likely to provide value to eager traders who want to learn from his first-hand experiences.

But as is always the case, value is in the eye of the beholder.

Sykes’ lessons are reasonably priced, some more than others. His older videos are understandably produced at a lower quality and could use a refresh. The content may also need updating as a lot has changed over the past 10 years.

It’s nice to know that 100% of profits from some of the older videos are donated to charity. Regardless of what one thinks of Sykes, his charitable endeavors are admirable, especially his goal to build more than 1,000 schools in poorer regions.

Why Sykes Sells A Product?

Sykes explained on “The Steve Harvey Show” that he grew up in a middle-class family and always strived to graduate from a good university and land a great job. But making millions of dollars at a young “ruined all those big plans — in a good way.”

Money, flashy cars and exotic vacations, he said, is certainly fun but “gets old after a while.” Now he wants to return to help other motivated individuals achieve their financial goals without the daily grind of a 9 to 5 job.

Perhaps more important, Sykes feels the need to stand out from the many competing products and tell traders the hard truth: becoming a successful trader is not an exact science. There is no magical formula and even his most profitable student, Tim Grittani, started off making no money for the first nine months.

Grittani is now up more than $11 million after studying Sykes’ methods. In fact, he is up more than double Sykes’ life-long profit of $5 million. While Grittani is certainly an outlier, many traders would be happy with making just 5% of what Grittani earned.

Pick and Choose What You Want to Learn

Sykes presents to his students the groundwork needed to become a successful penny stock trader and investor. Those who are new to the investing universe need to start from scratch and spending a few hundred dollars on Sykes’ content isn’t the worst of ideas.

Sykes organizes his many instructional videos, books, and presentations by category. So someone who isn’t necessarily new to trading and investing might not need to pay money for the in-depth guide on the importance of Level 2 quotes.

Some of the specific topics available for purchase include:

• 10-hour video instructions on how to read and analyze SEC filings. While many consider regulatory releases to be full of legal and boring material, understanding what companies are communicating to the market can give you a much-needed edge.
• 16-hour video on to build stock watchlists, where to gather news and information, and what research matters most. This course answers many of the most basic questions that need to be mastered before placing your first trade.
• 12-hour guide on how to specialize exclusively in trading biotech stocks.

Conclusion: Sykes Is Just A Teacher

Spending a few hundred dollars on one or two courses or a few thousand dollars on many courses is a waste of money unless you are willing to do the extra homework. Sykes is likely the first person to acknowledge this reality as he can’t control how you approach a trade. Many tend to forget or overlook the reality that Sykes is merely a teacher that acknowledges there is no secret formula for success and his material is nothing more than a building foundation.

He explained in a YouTube video the importance of continued learning on your own time:

“If you want success, like true success and lasting success, there are no days off,” he says. “If you truly want to achieve in this world, you got to learn every single angle.”

Sitting back and accepting losses will ultimately lead to defeat and that isn’t on Sykes. Instead, it is vital to learn from past mistakes to be better positioned for the future.

He adds: “You adapt. You test, test, test. And you refine, refine, and refine. And you optimize in the pursuit of success.”