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New Rules For My Chat Room

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/25/2023 8 min read

Thanks to this awesome bull market and more Millionaire Trading Challenge students and I getting featured everywhere like here and here and here, my education business has exploded and my newsletter’s chat room is at all-time highs in terms of members and activity so here are some New Rules For My Chat Room created by our valued chat moderators who you MUST listen to!

New Rules For My Chat Room

1. Be polite. Do not harass or use demeaning or offensive language. Do not argue or insult. If someone violates this rule or posts incorrect info, please private message a moderator (don’t respond to that person).

2. Tickers must be typed in CAPS. Stock chat abbreviations can be found below (and should never be in CAPS). Don’t post anything else in CAPS. There is also a list of general chat abbreviations below.

3. The topic of the chat room is momentum stock alerts, primarily for stocks priced under $15. If a higher-priced stock has momentum (such as a 10% move) then it is on-topic. While people can make money from other kinds of trading, scalping stocks such as AAPL or playing merger arbitrage or scalping ETFs is off-topic. Stocks that do not have much volume are off-topic as well … to day-trade we need volume. Cryptocurrency price moves are off-topic, except when they can affect stocks.

4. We are not investors. The chat room is not the place for your in-depth due diligence on stocks you are trading. If you do something like that, please discuss it outside of market hours.

5. Stay on topic by keeping to stock alerts and brief discussion (two sentences or less) of trades from 9:00 AM EST to 4:00 PM EST (the 30 minutes prior to the open and the whole trading day). Everything that is not a stock alert or a brief discussion of a current or potential stock trade is off-topic during this time. For example, saying “XYZ is perking up after consolidation” or “ABC just broke support” or “XYZ just filed a PR saying ‘New contract with GE’” are useful alerts. Trade discussion means giving reasons why you think a trade is good or bad — don’t just say “XYZ is a good buy here” or “I think XYZ goes up,” give a reason to justify why. Off-topic posts will result in a gag, sometimes without warning (a gag means you won’t be able to post in chat).

6. No pumping, cheering, or bashing stocks. If there is relevant news, then post it (and post a link). But do not say things like “Come on SIRI!” or “XYZ is a fraud” or “Go XYZ!” Always give a reason for why you think a stock will move.

7. No stocks under $0.01 unless specifically approved by the chat administrator (Michael Goode).

8. If you give an alert, give a reason; don’t just type the ticker. For example, instead of typing “XYZ!”, type “XYZ dropping like a rock!”

9. Please no questions during the trading day (i.e., “What brokerage do you use?”). Don’t ask questions that require knowing the future (“will XYZ go up?”). Don’t ask if there is news unless you have already checked chat history and no one has posted news (see helpful hints for using chat #8). Don’t ask if other people are looking to buy a certain stock. Don’t ask if you should buy/sell a stock. If you don’t know, stay out or get out. You can private message Michael Goode or Tim Lento with such questions during the trading day. Or, you can ask after the market close…or best yet ask questions during Tim Sykes’ weekly Q&A webinars for his Millionaire Trading Challenge students! If you wish to discuss something during the trading day, go to the off-topic room by clicking on “Chat Room > Off Topic”. If you would like to discuss something with a particular user, kindly ask them to join you in the off-topic room. Do not answer questions in TimAlerts chat.

10. Don’t post information that has already been posted (we don’t need 10 people announcing that a stock has been halted).

11. Questions and alerts on whether a stock is shortable are off-topic during market hours. To find out how to check whether your broker has shares, see How to Borrow Shares to Short on Michael Goode‘s blog.

12. If you have nothing to add to the discussion of a stock/trade then don’t ask about it (“What do you people think about XYZ?”). Instead, when someone does mention an opinion or thought on XYZ you can ask them to elaborate on their reasons for thinking the stock will go a certain way.

13. Anyone violating chat room rules or just being annoying will be gagged (anything they type will not be seen by others). Significant abuses can lead to completely banning a subscriber from the chatroom. Significant abuses that will lead to banning from chat include but are not limited to: spamming, harassment of other users, use of demeaning or racist language, and encouraging people to violate the law.

Helpful hints for using chat

1. To send a private message to a chat moderator, right-click their name and select “private message”. Users cannot send private messages to other users.
2. To send a public message (a short message to another user that others can see), right-click on that person’s name and select “Send Public Message.” Please use these sparingly and only for on-topic comments.
3. Chat history can be found here.
4. To change sound settings, go to the top of the page and click on “Settings” and then “Sounds.”
5. If someone posts something that is very helpful, click on the little heart icon that appears when you put your cursor over their message. That gives that person “Karma” and the post then shows up in the “Favorites” tab.
6. To go to the off-topic room, click on “Chat Room” > “Off Topic.”
7. To see comments from before you entered the chat, click on “Click to load history” to the left of the smiley button. Note: this does not work in the “All in One” chatroom view.
8. To search for prior posts about a specific stock, enter the ticker in the “Ticker Chat History” search box in the top right of the chat window. You will then see a new column on the right side of the window with the stock chart at the top and below that any comments on the stock in reverse chronological order. Use this to see if someone has already posted the news on a stock.
Stock chat abbreviations
a/n — afternoon
b/o – breakout
o/n – overnight
pre or p/m – premarket trading
a/h – after-hours trading
eod – end of day
e/r – earnings release
r/r – risk vs. reward
l/f – low float stock (very few shares outstanding, generally under 10 million, so these stocks can move a lot on low volume)
ss – short sell
l2 – level 2 stock quotes
hod – high of the day (not including pre-market data)
nhod – new high of the day (used when a stock has broken above a previous high)
52s – 52-week highs
lod – Low of the day (not including pre-market data)
nlod – new low of the day (used when a stock has broken below a previous low)
sup – support
res – resistance
red – a stock that is below its previous day’s close
green – a stock that is above its previous day’s close
r/g – a stock going from red to green
g/r – a stock going from green to red
perking up – stock is starting to move up a little off of consolidation
ph – power hour, the last hour of trading (3pm to 4pm Eastern)
mm – market maker
cp – Centerpoint Securities
ib – Interactive Brokers
tda – TDAmeritrade (They own the Thinkorswim trading platform)

stt – stockstotrade
tos – thinkorswim

das – DAS Trading Software

Common chat abbreviations

afk – Away from keyboard
idk – I don’t know
iirc – If I remember correctly
imho / imo – In my (humble) opinion
ttyl – Talk to you later
bbl – Be back later
lol – Laughing out loud
pm – Private message
tia – Thanks in advance
ty – Thank you
yw – You’re welcome


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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”