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Patterns To Watch

It Happens Every Friday. Most Traders Never Notice.

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 12/12/2025 5 min read

You’ve been grinding all week. And it’s finally Friday.

Long hours, too few dollars, you’re hoping to catch a break this weekend.

During the holidays, it can get even more stressful.

Regular monthly bills but with gifts and travel expenses on top. When Friday rolls around, you deserve a well-earned breather.

But one more hour of work could flip your entire outlook …

While most people are clocking out on Friday afternoon, I’m clocking in.

At the end of every week, a specific window opens in the market. This is a trading pattern I’ve used for years.

It doesn’t matter that you missed the big runs on Monday or Tuesday. It doesn’t matter that you only have an hour to spare from your day.

What matters is whether you’re ready to hustle when everyone else stops paying attention?

My students and I don’t need to trade all day. We wait for this one specific setup, The Weekend Pattern. And it runs like clockwork.

  • One trade.
  • Once a week.
  • At the same time.
  • With the same pattern.

This Friday, the setup is back again.

Most people will miss it, because they’re too busy escaping the final hours of their work week, instead of using it to hustle.

Don’t let another Friday slip by while someone else takes the trade you should have caught.

The weekend starts after the bell, not before.

What to Watch for This Friday’s Setup

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Every Friday morning, I scan for the strongest spikes in the small-cap market.

The stocks that already show serious volume and a clear catalyst.

Then I watch how the price behaves after the morning spike. Most traders chase that first run and get smoked on the pullback. Don’t chase it.

The smart move is to wait. Let it prove it can hold strength into the afternoon.

If a stock can hold its gains after lunch and into the close, it’s showing bullish conviction even as the volume tapers.

That’s the fuel behind a Monday morning gap-up.

See, the traders that leave the market early on Friday are the reason this pattern exists. There aren’t enough buyers to spike the price higher, and the news is too bullish to push it lower.

Then, over the weekend, traders find these bullish stocks that haven’t broken out and they buy shares. Those orders execute on Monday morning, causing a spike.

My goal is to buy on Friday into the close and sell on Monday into the spike.

Take my trade on Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) as an example.

On Friday morning, BYND spiked after positive headlines hit about some big news that was to come on Monday.

Instead of buying the morning spike, I waited for the price to consolidate and hold into the close. That strength was the signal.

By Monday morning, the stock gapped higher and I sold my position for a 66% profit.

Here’s a full breakdown of that trade.

And here’s your checklist for Friday:

  • Low-float stocks.
  • Spiking at least 20%.
  • With a strong news catalyst.
  • And consolidation into the close.

You don’t need to trade full-time to make gains in the market.

Leverage My Entire Trading Process

Those who’ve been watching the market, you might already have an inkling …

The easy money days are over.

Bubble fears are swarming and major indexes are showing weakness near the highs.

Look at the S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) below. Every candle represents one trading day:

SPY chart multi-month, 1-day candles Source: StocksToTrade
SPY chart multi-month, 1-day candles Source: StocksToTrade

The reality is, 2026 could be a brutal year for anyone without a real strategy.

Learning the weekend pattern is a good start. But traders should learn my entire process so they have every opportunity to capitalize in 2026.

Wall Street’s biggest names are already sounding the alarm:

  • JPMorgan’s CEO is warning about a “major decline” in AI stocks.
  • Goldman Sachs expects a serious drawdown.
  • Ray Dalio just said we’re sitting on a potential “AI bubble.”

Buy-and-hold won’t save you next year.

And today could be your last chance to see my full trading process broken down step-by-step before the carnage starts.

Learn how to:

  • Find the right stocks before the crowd.
  • Pinpoint the perfect entries.
  • Cut losses quickly and lock in gains like a pro.
  • Build discipline that lasts through any market cycle.

This is the same formula I’ve used for more than 20 years to navigate bull markets, crashes, and everything in between.

Seats for this FREE Bootcamp are almost gone, and it starts today at noon.

Once we kick off, there’s no replay, no second chance.

>> Reserve One Of The Final Spots For This 2-Day Bootcamp <<

 

Cheers

 

*Past performance does not indicate 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.
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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”