Spoiled traders are learning expensive lessons right now.
Last year, when SPY, QQQ, and crypto were running wild, when meme stocks were spiking daily, these traders made money without discipline.
They got lucky on ridiculous trades, then convinced themselves they were invincible geniuses.
They started taking bigger positions, ignoring their rules, trading with ego instead of process.
Now the market’s choppy, and those inflated accounts are getting obliterated.
It’s like watching trust fund kids suddenly given real responsibilities.
They fail miserably because they never earned anything on their own. They never learned the fundamentals when the stakes were low.
Anyone watch Succession? The spoiled brats don’t win.
If you’ve been trading for less than 5 years, you’re basically a newborn baby.
I don’t care if you’ve had a few winning months. I don’t care if you nailed a couple of big trades.
You’re still a toddler.
Just like you crawled before you walked (and eventually ran), you should take baby-size positions in the beginning. (Especially in this market.)
You do NOT have to lose big (or even risk big) to make big gains over time.
If you’re starting small early, you’re actually in the best possible position.
Here’s why your small account is secretly your biggest advantage…
Table of Contents
Big Accounts Aren’t Just Bigger Wins
I get it. It’s exciting to imagine trading a seven-figure account when you’re just starting.
Do it. Visualize the future you want.
But realize this: a big account doesn’t just mean bigger wins. It also means bigger losses.
The more you put on the line, the more you stand to lose. It’s that simple.
When you’re trading $500 per position, a bad trade costs you $50 if you cut at 10% down.
Annoying, but manageable.
When you’re trading $50,000 per position, that same 10% loss costs you $5,000.
That’s much harder to stomach, even with a larger account.
And that’s why starting with a small account is actually a blessing in disguise.
Important reminder for ALL newbies, you guys get spoiled so easily by hot $DIA $SPY $QQQ $VBTC markets like what we had the middle of last year and too many other frivolous booms like NFTs the past few years, then when the market returns to less excitement/choppiness, you take…
— Timothy Sykes (@timothysykes) January 23, 2026
Small Accounts Force Good Habits
A small account forces you to size your trades conservatively and choose your setups meticulously.
You can’t afford to be sloppy, chase weak setups, or ignore your rules.
Every trade matters when your account is small. So you think twice before entering.
Building those habits now will help you avoid account-ruining mistakes later.
And when you do find an undeniable setup? When you execute your plan correctly and cut losses when you’re wrong?
Your modest wins start compounding…
Do that consistently, and those small gains will add up faster than you think.
Consistency beats hype every session. One clean setup executed well is all you need.
— StocksToTrade (@StocksToTrade) January 20, 2026
Not overnight with one lucky trade. But by compounding small, consistent gains, over and over again.
Meanwhile, the clueless newbies who nail a few lucky miracle trades and end up with big accounts?
They bitch and moan about everything. They don’t realize that losses are crucial to every newbie’s education and future success.
They blow up because they never learned discipline when the stakes were low.
And while everyone prays for a hot #stockmarket pray instead for more slower markets, especially after the INSANE $DIA $SPY $QQQ runup we had the past few months, as it'll give you more time to study. Or you can be like the $BTC longs stuck in a looooooong river in Egypt called…
— Timothy Sykes (@timothysykes) January 20, 2026
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Losses Are Part Of Your Education
You’re going to take losses. Every trader does.
Chasing a microcap breakout too early, sizing up too much because the last few trades were winners, holding a loser too long (hoping it would come back).
Whatever it is: Identify it, write it down, and keep a journal.
Learn from your mistakes.
If you notice the same mistake happening over and over, good. That means you’ve found a specific error you can immediately work to correct.
Each time you go through that process, you’ll have grown up a little. Taking another baby step towards “trading adulthood.”
That’s how my millionaire students* did it. They started small. They made mistakes. They learned from them. They didn’t repeat them. They scaled up slowly as their consistency improved.
Jack Kellogg started with a few thousand dollars working as a valet.
Now he’s over $25 million in verified profits.*
He didn’t get there by starting with a huge account and swinging for the fences.
He got there by taking baby steps, learning from every loss, and building the right habits slowly.
Your Future Is In Your Hands
You can ignore my boring, conservative tips and suffer the consequences of your newbie-itis.
You can convince yourself that you’re different. That you’re smarter than the other newbies. That you can skip the learning curve and go straight to the big money.
Or you can embrace the fact that your small account is actually a gift.
It’s your training ground. Your opportunity to make mistakes that cost $50 instead of $5,000. Your chance to build discipline before the stakes get real.
That’s how you survive long enough to grow from a toddler to an adult…
…and to watch your account transform from a piggy bank to a fortune.
Cheers,
Tim Sykes
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