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Trading Lessons

History Doesn’t Repeat (But It $RIMEs)

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 2/18/2026 6 min read
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Every Friday at 3 pm, the same thing happens…

Traders start tuning out.

You start thinking about happy hour, scrolling through Instagram, maybe swiping on Hinge…

Image created by Google Gemini
Image created by Google Gemini

But while you’re daydreaming about your days off, you’re missing the best trading window of the week.

Friday afternoon. 

And what I call The Weekend Pattern. 

Last Friday, My students and I were watching a stock that surged 188% into the close, then gapped up again in Tuesday’s premarket.

Of course, the move didn’t last long.

But it delivered huge gains for those who saw the pattern forming early…

That’s the whole edge of the Weekend Pattern: selling quickly into the gap-up open.

(Don’t say I didn’t warn you…)

Here’s where the real opportunity lies on Friday (while your competition daydreams about sipping umbrella cocktails in Cabo)…

How The Weekend Pattern Works 

Every Friday, traders close their laptops early. Weekend’s calling. They’ve got brunch plans. Day drinking to do. Potato chips to eat.

They’ll “scan the market later.”

Spoiler: They do.

(While you’re already in the trade, stress-free, enjoying your weekend.)

While you’re lying on a pool float, those same traders start frantically searching for the stocks they missed Friday afternoon…

Image created by Google Gemini
Image created by Google Gemini

The biggest movers. The plays that consolidated into the close with strength.

That’s when they place buy orders for Monday’s open. Market orders, limit orders at Friday’s close or higher, orders galore.

They’re convinced it’s got another 200% to go…

At Monday’s open, those buy orders execute.

The stock spikes further…

And if you bought Friday afternoon, you’re taking sweet gains into their desperate FOMO.

Look at Algorhythm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RIME) from last Friday…

The stock made a late-day move, surging 188% into the close heading into President’s Day Weekend.

Then it gapped up another 30% at Tuesday’s open…

Sure, the long weekend made it even crazier.

Three days for the hype to build instead of two. Three days of traders scrolling Twitter, finding RIME, convincing themselves they found the next big thing.

But this pattern doesn’t only apply to holiday weekends…

It happens every single Friday.

The 5 Boxes Every Friday Trade Must Check

  1. Big Gainer (20-30% on the day)

Up 5%? Weak. No hype. Up 200%? Too late. You’re the bagholder now. You want that Goldilocks zone where there’s momentum but room to run.

  1. Low Float

Supply and demand, baby. Economics 101. Fewer shares outstanding means Monday’s buy orders move the price faster. This isn’t complicated.

  1. Strong Catalyst

Earnings beat. Partnership. FDA approval. Clinical trial progress. Something real that makes sense. Not “the CEO tweeted a rocket emoji” or “Stocktwits said buy.”

  1. Holding Gains Into The Close

Stock needs to hold gains into Friday afternoon. Dumping from 2 pm to 4 pm? That’s not consolidation. That’s distribution. That’s smart money selling to dumb money.

  1. Closing Above a Key Support Level

Clear level where you’ll cut the trade if it breaks. No hope. No holding and praying. No “diamond hands” because some Reddit bro told you to.

All five line up? I’m buying.

More Breaking News

Only three out of five? I’m walking away and enjoying my weekend.

The Fatal Mistake (a.k.a. Why You Keep Missing These)

The biggest mistake with this pattern: Traders chase the Friday morning spike.

Stock gaps up 25% at 9:35 am on classic microcap news. They panic-buy at the high.

Then the stock pulls back all day. They’re underwater by Friday close.

They hold over the weekend, hoping for a Monday miracle.

Maybe they light a candle. Say a prayer. Check the chart 47 times over the weekend.

The market opens on Monday.

SPOILER ALERT: The stock dumps.

Now they’re bagholding into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, wondering how they dug themselves into such an avoidable hole.

What went wrong? They chased instead of waiting.

The pattern is waiting for the consolidation. Let the morning spike happen. Let the chasers get shaken out. Let the stock prove it can hold strength into the afternoon.

Then you enter. Not before.

The Countdown Is On

Why am I writing this on Wednesday?

Friday is only two days away.

You have time to prepare. Time to understand the pattern. Time to set up your scanners. Time to know what you’re looking for before 3 pm on Friday.

As we speak, I’m scanning for the same five criteria.

If the setup’s there Friday afternoon, I’m taking it. If not, I’m enjoying my weekend.

You could’ve made money while everyone else was off Monday, grilling burgers for President’s Day.

You didn’t need to watch charts. You didn’t have to stress. You would’ve just waited for the pattern to play out.

That’s the Weekend Pattern.

If you missed it, don’t worry. The next one’s out there, just starting to set up for Friday.

Are you going to be ready? Or are you going to be the one panic-buying Monday morning?

Watch the video below. I’ll show you exactly how to prepare for Friday:

Cheers,

Tim Sykes

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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.
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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”