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Trading Lessons

Are You Missing Out On The Best Trades?

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 6/15/2023 7 min read

Imagine for a moment…

You wake up…scroll through a list of stocks and within a few hours…

BOOOOMM…

You’ve just banked a year’s salary in a single day.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

It might seem for some…but I can tell you it’s happened to me many times. (Results not typical)

And you know what else?

It wasn’t an accident, either.

In fact, if you want to put yourself in a position to succeed each trading day…doing this is non-negotiable.

Especially since we’ve entered a bull market.

What’s Your Excuse?

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If you speak to most traders who aren’t making money, they’ll usually shower you with dozen reasons why…

  • I don’t have time
  • I don’t have money
  • I don’t have the knowledge
  • I don’t have the experience
  • I don’t have the intelligence

Believe it or not…every trader who’s made it…had these same concerns at one point.

The difference is, they didn’t let excuses stand in their way.

They pushed forward and learned the ropes, and you can too!

Look, I can sit here and make excuses too…

I have a crazy travel schedule, and charity and mentoring are taking time away from my trading…I might not have a good wifi connection to trade…blah…blah…blah. 

But you know what?

Regardless of where I am and how sleep-deprived I feel… some things are simply non-negotiable.

#1 STUDY STUDY STUDY

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For example, I still review my trades and analyze them to death.

I want to constantly remind myself of what I’m doing right and wrong and what areas of my trading I need to adjust.

And believe me, after 20-plus years of trading, It’s ingrained in me what my best and most profitable setups are—like my weekend trade, which is absolutely crushing it this year.

But I STILL review.

Why?

Two reasons.

First, I want to put myself in the best possible position to win. Knowing what’s working well makes me more confident with my trading.

You can have all the skills and trading knowledge in the world…but if you lack confidence in your decision-making, you will likely not succeed.

Second, what kind of example would I be setting for my students if I told them that studying is ESSENTIAL to their success…and then I go and not study.

Unlike most of the clowns in my industry…I prefer transparency.

Moreover, I want to lead from the front.

That’s why I spent almost a week reviewing my horrendous $27K loss.

I could have swept the trade under the rug and not mentioned it to anyone. The trade happened so fast that I never got a chance to alert my subscribers.

In other words, no one would have known about it if I didn’t mention it.

But losses are a part of trading.

And as much as you probably don’t want to hear this… you will probably suffer some big losses along your trading journey.

More Breaking News

As your mentor, I want to help you avoid some of those mistakes. I talk about my losses openly because I’d rather you learn from them than lose your hard-earned money.

#2 Be Ready For Some Action

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Now that we’ve entered a bull market, I expect to see  A LOT more trading opportunities.

You will miss it if you’re not prepared.

That’s why putting together a morning watchlist is non-negotiable for me. 

Tens of thousands of stocks are in the market when you include OTC names.

If you don’t narrow your focus, you’ll simply be lost.

In addition to listing the stocks I’m watching, I also leave notes for myself on why I’m watching and the setup I’d like to see in order for me to trade them.

I send it out to my Challenge Students several hours before the opening bell.

For example, here’s what I sent them yesterday:

IDEX, CYXT, GEGI are the lowest-priced spikers I watch every day…GEGI, I was dead on earlier this week but didn’t have the patience to hold for the multiday run, CYXT I just took a single as bankrupt companies are scary to hold for too long, and IDEX, I’m waiting for a big intraday panic, ideally near the market open, to dip buy into.

LEJU, WLDS, MGOL, and AHI are some recent spikers I’m still watching every day for potential dip buys into morning panics or morning spikes with big volume and news…no rush on any of them as they are all very choppy and can do financings is seems that will really tank these plays, but if the right news/pattern comes along they can still spike so watch them.

BWV, GREE, NKLA, WETG, and CALC are some of the biggest recent spikers I’m watching every day for potential dip buys and any morning spike buys based on big volume and, ideally, news catalysts.

BIG shout out to STT Oracle for nailing NKLA as a buy of just over $1/share, premarket it’s already up to $1.30/share.

Important note: JUST BECAUSE I PUT A STOCK ON MY WATCHLIST DOESN’T MEAN I HAVE TO TRADE IT OR WILL.

Again the watchlist is put together is there to help me get organized.

Of course, there’s even a chance I take a trade in something that isn’t even on my watchlist. This is pretty common with stocks that have breaking news in them.

Overall, the watchlist is pretty simple, but it’s also very powerful.

For example, I ended up taking a trade from the watchlist yesterday. It was in the ticker symbol AHI.

You can see my notes here:

A quick 10% gainer…I’ll take that any day of the week.

And believe me, if you stack enough small wins…you’ll be surprised at how it can grow.

Look, we are about to enter some exciting times.

Those traders who put in the work and continue to put in the work are likely the ones who will reap the rewards.

There’s a lot that you can do…but at the very least, you have to commit to your daily study and watchlist preparation.

If you want to fast-track your journey, click this link to see how I can help. 

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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

* 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”