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Trading Psychology

How To Wake Up. Trade. And Go To Work.

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 4/10/2024 5 min read

This is the schedule to have right now!

We’re seeing sooooo many premarket spikers. And you don’t need to wait for regular hours to trade them.

Take advantage of the price action while it’s hot, then go about your day.

This is why I say that trading is a perfect side hustle. People can keep their day job and pay attention to the market when they have free time.

Let’s say someone works a 9 – 5 job. No problem …

The market opens for intraday hours at 9:30 A.M. Eastern. But premarket hours start at 4 A.M. Eastern …

And within that time frame we see some INSANE stock spikes.

Look at Auddia Inc. (NASDAQ: AUUD) from Monday of this week, it spiked 300% and started in premarket around 8:00 A.M. Eastern. On the chart below, every candle represents 2 minutes:

AUUD chart intraday, 2-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

Or Laser Photonics Corporation (NASDAQ: LASE) which spiked 200% on Tuesday and also started in premarket. There’s another two-minute candle chart below:

LASE chart intraday, 2-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

Or Marin Software Incorporated (NASDAQ: MRIN) which spiked 210% on Wednesday after announcing news and spiking on Tuesday during after hours. There’s a 2-minute candle chart below:

MRIN chart multi-day, 2-minute chart

Technically you could trade the after hours spikes too …

It’s all about what works for your schedule.

Here’s How We Profit

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I’m not the only one trading premarket spikers.

See the Tweet that I reposted below:

Nice work, Karina, I snagged some of my own Adial Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ADIL) profits after the market opened. See my trade notes below, with a starting stake of $10,300:

Source: Profit.ly

These trade opportunities are open for anyone who can recognize the price action.

It’s not rocket science, but it DOES take some getting used to. That’s why I write these blog posts and hold live trading streams. It’s my effort to give new traders enough market exposure to eventually capitalize off of these plays

So far it seems to be working! I have over 30 millionaire students and that number keeps growing.

To start, one of the biggest things a new trader should learn is the consistency of adaptability.

Here’s What That Means:

investing for beginners short term vs long term
© Millionaire Media, LLC

Premarket spikers haven’t always been hot like this. Before this trend, we’ve seen stocks make bigger moves intraday.

But premarket spikes are what’s working right now, so that’s what we pay attention to.

Don’t worry, the patterns we use to trade are always the same. People behave predictably so we can always use the same trading framework that’s influenced by human nature.

It’s just a matter of when the stocks will spike and how high.

That’s why we sometimes have to adapt to catch the best moves. Our trading patterns help us to navigate the otherwise murky waters of volatile price action.

In the video below I explain a key trading pattern that’s working right now. With examples!

Notice, I’m not trying to take the entire spike. I just want the most predictable* part of the run. Then I can move to the next spiker and do it all over again.

Take it one setup at a time. My trading career is a marathon, not a sprint. And every profitable trade adds up.

See my profit chart below:

Source: Profitly

Follow my lead. I’ll show you the best profit opportunities for small-account traders right now.

Cheers.

*Past performance is not indicative of 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. 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”