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Trading Lessons

Your Morning Blueprint Is Here

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 4/29/2022 5 min read

Most people who try trading will not make money in the market…let alone experience life-changing results.

Despite the daunting odds, I’ve helped dozens of people crack seven-figures in trading profits by teaching them a systematic approach to trading by focusing on risk management and trade selection.

You see, most traders focus so much on making millions out of the gate they set themselves up for failure, one of the 13 most common mistakes traders make.

But what if I could give you a blueprint to start your day with that helps you avoid those common pitfalls?

Now, I won’t share all my secrets as that wouldn’t be fair to my subscribers.

They get access to the premium content.

Check out the one pattern I used to become a multi-millionaire in my 20s

But if you want to get a head start, here’s how you do it.

PreMarket Prep

Unless you are some sort of wizard day trader, you cannot drop into your chair at 9:30 a.m. and expect to turn a profit.

Even though I’m half way across the world, I get a jump on the market before I plan to trade.

And here’s what you need to do:

  • Review the broader markets – Even when you trade small cap stocks, they don’t move in isolation. Look at not just how the major indices are moving, but how small cap runners have performed over the past several weeks.
  • Check out the date – It might sound weird, but stocks trade differently on Monday than they do on Friday or Wednesday. Lots of traders hit the ground running on Monday. But by Friday afternoon, we get into a lull as folks head home for the weekend.
  • Look for Breaking News – This is by far one of the most critical pieces to finding and executing successful trades.

If you don’t have access to our Breaking News feature on the StocksToTrade platform you aren’t hunting with a full quiver of arrows.

The majority of my trades rely on stocks moving due to earnings, clinical results, and the like. Without this, I wouldn’t find most of my trades

  • Choose your strategy – There are as many ways to trade the market as there are stars in the sky. Pick one strategy and stick with it until you get good. Don’t try doing 20 things at once. To be clear, you want to stick with a strategy that you like and understand.
  • Review your watchlist – Every trade needs a good watchlist. This should include former runners, stocks with news from the past few days, and other equities of interest.

Every day you should go through the same process. Only change things once in a while and do it deliberately when you do. Forming habits is a great way to improve performance and consistency.

Focus on Making Good Decisions

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Premarket preparation should be 90% of your focus.

The other 10% should be on the decisions you make.

Look, any given trade can succeed or fail. Trading is an exercise in probabilities.

We can’t control the outcomes, only the decisions we make.

So what are those decisions?

  1. The setups we pick
  2. How we execute a trade

In the section above I mentioned focusing on one strategy. You want to become as mechanical in your trading as possible.

Selecting one strategy hones you into a feel for how that strategy works. It helps you fine-tune your setup selection and execution.

That’s what decision-making is.

With any winning strategy, if you make enough good decisions over time, you will see your outcomes improve.

Know When to Fold’Em

© Millionaire Media, LLC

Do you know what ruins more trades more than anything else? Ourselves.

Our emotions get in the way of our success.

That’s why the first two sections talk about building structure to your day and your trading.

But that only goes so far.

Now, you have to recognize when you need to reset.

Some traders have a max loss amount for a day or a week.

Or, you can simply recognize that your head isn’t in the right place.

I can tell you that it’s quite easy for a string of bad trades to set someone on tilt, where they get into the dangerous habit of revenge trading.

Do yourself a favor – once an hour, just do a quick mental inventory check and make sure you haven’t fallen prey to your worst instincts.

If you have, keep it simple – close out your positions and walk away.

There are plenty of trades out there when you come back tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

In case it wasn’t obvious, success comes down to preparation and decision making.

You can’t get there without patience and certainly without practice.

Can you cut the learning curve?

Absolutely.

You don’t have to start at square one.

My Supernova pattern is one of the easiest to recognize and use to become a better trader.

Click here to learn more.

—Tim


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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”