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Trading Lessons

How To Grow Your Account

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 1/24/2025 5 min read

A lot of people get into the market with a small account.

There’s nothing wrong with that. But most people use the wrong approach …

They hear about investment advice from Wall Street and they put money in a mutual fund or the S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY).

Wall Street wants your money, but it might not be your best interest …

Here’s the reality … The SPY gained 20% last year. And for a lot of investors, that’s ‘best case scenario’.

But for people with small accounts, that barely moves the needle.

Let’s say you have $5,000 in the SPY: That means you have to wait all year to bring home $1,000 (best case scenario).

Face it, at that pace, we’re not moving anywhere fast.

Here’s my solution:

Focus on stocks that spike higher and take the meat of the move.

One of the stocks that we’ll cover today … Allurion Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ALUR) spiked 510%* last week!

We could take 20% of that in a single day. And there’s still a lot left on the table!

Then we can take those profits and put them in safer assets like the SPY.

Here’s how to grow your small account the right way … 

The Hottest Setups Right Now

Tim Sykes checking his top penny stocks list in Italy
© Millionaire Media, LLC

From the 510%* total spike on ALUR last week, I snagged a 6% profit.

That’s 6% in one day!

Remember, to make that much from the SPY last year, you would have had to wait almost 4 months.

Take a look at my trade notes from Friday, January 24:

ALUR trade notes
Source: Profit.ly

Right now, we’re most interested in stocks that spike during premarket hours.

I explained this idea earlier in the week, here’s the blog post.

A lot of brokerage accounts open at 7 A.M. Eastern. And as a result, a lot of momentum hits the market after 7 A.M.

We can see this obvious momentum on ALUR’s chart, below.

Every candle represents one trading minute:

ALUR stock chart with annotations
ALUR chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

This is a huge trend in the market right now.

On the same day as ALUR – Friday, January 24 – Evaxion Biotech (NASDAQ: EVAX) also spiked +100%. And it happened right after 7 A.M. Eastern.

Take a look:

EVAX stock chart with annotations
EVAX chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

There are more examples of 7 A.M. spikers in this blog!

Make sure that you wake up with enough time to play these premarket runners.

Yes, we can trade during premarket.

Depending on your broker, you may have to call them to enable premarket trading for your account. It’s not a difficult process, it just takes a few minutes.

Traders who sleep until the market opens at 9:30 A.M. Eastern … You’re missing the best plays.

How To Trade These Spikes

tim sykes in sedona arizona with laptop of stock chart
© Millionaire Media, LLC

The hottest stocks in the market like to follow popular trade patterns.

That’s because the people trading the stocks are predictable during times of high stress.

The pattern that I used to profit off of ALUR last Friday … I’ll likely use the same pattern at some point this week.

New traders should use my AI trading bot to follow these setups.

The AI tracks the hottest stocks in the market that follow my patterns.

So … This week during premarket, when you find a stock that’s spiking after 7 A.M. … Prompt my AI with the ticker!

It will give you a trade plan as if you asked me directly.

Cheers.

 

*Past performance does not indicate future results


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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”