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Trading Lessons

My #1 Fix for Gains in the Stock Market

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 3/20/2026 5 min read

The best trade setup in the stock market repeats over and over again.

So that’s all I do… I trade the same price action on the same stocks, and I’ve done it for over two decades.

90% of traders lose because they get bored waiting for the same old setup. They go rogue and try to squeeze cash out of a sketchy spiker.

Is it boring to make money? Is that what you’re telling me?

On Friday last week, I pulled a 17% profit from a single stock spike. And it was the same pattern as usual…

The S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) gained 17% in all of 2025. I did it in a matter of minutes.

I’m looking for the same setup this week.

You’re welcome to follow along, but this process only works if you agree to stay out of bad plays.

Don’t let your FOMO take hold this week: wait for this pattern.

A 230% Spike

On March 13, bioAffinity Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: BIAF) announced record revenue and unit sales for its lung cancer diagnostic, CyPath lung.

Physician orders also increased 67% year over year.

Cancer catalysts cause extreme market volatility because the disease is so severe. Any bullish news could translate to a treatment breakthrough, which would logically spike the stock’s value.

Plus, BIAF’s float is only 4.3 million shares. When real buying pressure hits a stock that small, the price has nowhere to go but up.

BIAF already spiked 230% since the announcement.

Here’s my post from the first day of volatility:

I was watching this stock for days. It kept teasing a key level, failing to break through, and pulling back…

Most traders would’ve given up.

But I kept stalking it because I know what a clean breakout looks like, and I knew the risk was manageable if I timed my dip buy correctly.

How I Traded It

BIAF hit $3 per share on March 17, but it couldn’t stay above that level.

It tried to break past $3 twice in the morning and again during after hours. But the resistance proved too strong.

That’s a clear breakout level.

On March 19, when the stock spiked toward $3 in the afternoon, I bought shares on a dip just before the breakout and sold for gains into strength.

Then I made another trade as the price retraced toward the breakout level and bounced.

Here are my notes:

Source: Profit.ly

Source: Profit.ly

Here’s the chart:

BIAF chart multi-day, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

More Breaking News

Two trades, on the same stock, within minutes of each other. And I walked away with a 17% total profit.

The Next Setup

BIAF isn’t a one-off.

The conditions that created this trade aren’t unique. We see spikes like this every week:

  • A low float
  • A real catalyst
  • An initial spike of at least 20%
  • A low share price

There are already stocks moving this week that fit these factors…

And believe it or not, the 230%* spike from BIAF is on the low end of these spikes.

I’ve seen stocks run 1,000%+.*

And these moves are getting more common… especially after the recent White House amendment that slipped under everyone’s radar.

This momentum is building, and people haven’t noticed yet. That works to our advantage.

You’re still early: My favorite trade right now.

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”