timothy sykes logo

My Friday Strategy During A Volatile Market

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 10/2/2025 4 min read
My Friday Strategy During A Volatile Market Thumbnail

We’ve got a serious situation unfolding in the market.

The government is shut down.

And the prolonged inactivity from capitol hill is starting to inspire an uncertain volatility.

  • The first day of the shutdown, the market spiked to new all-time highs.
  • The monthly jobs report that’s supposed to come out on Friday, October 3, is delayed until after the shutdown ends.
  • Other economic data will likely be delayed the longer the shutdown lasts.

When volatility increases in the market, the spikes in our small-cap sector grow larger.

And today, Friday, I’m looking at a specific setup as we head into the afternoon.

The incoming weekend can inspire volatile spikes from certain stocks on Monday.

My goal is to find an entry on these stocks before the market closes on Friday.

Last weekend we saw a great setup from Fractyl Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: GUTS).

Not only did it spike higher on Monday, the price continued to push upward on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Look at the chart of GUTS below where every candle represents five trading minutes:

GUTS chart multi-day, 5-minutes candles Source: StocksToTrade
GUTS chart multi-day, 5-minutes candles Source: StocksToTrade

I look for this setup every Friday.

And every time we see macro chaos in the market, whether it’s a Fed surprise, inflation panic, or a shutdown like this, smart traders step in to capitalize on the resulting volatile price action.

These are the kinds of moves we live for.

And the same factors are lining up again today.

Don’t miss this Friday afternoon’s entry.

Watch my video below for the full breakdown:

For more information about what makes these plays run …

Let’s analyze the move from GUTS last week.

Weekend Trade Pattern

© 2025 Millionaire Media, LLC

Every Friday, there are a group of traders who pack up and leave early, before the market closes.

Over the weekend, they find Friday’s hottest stocks. The best setups that they missed from Friday afternoon.

More Breaking News

That’s when they buy shares.

On Monday, the buy orders execute and the stock spikes higher.

With my weekend trade pattern, I buy shares on Friday afternoon and sell into the Monday morning momentum.

GUTS was a great example from last weekend.

During premarket hours on Friday, September 26, the company announced bullish data from its GLP-1 weightloss study.

The stock spiked 30% that day as a result.

Notice, it didn’t spike +100% like some of the setups I trade intraweek. The lower percent gain ensures that the stock isn’t exhausted on Friday and still has room to run.

Also, the stock consolidated into the close.

It didn’t break past the premarket highs, that’s another sign of reserved strength. Instead, the price moved sideways consolidating around $1.30.

Look at the GUTS price action below from Friday with one minutes candles:

GUTS chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade
GUTS chart intraday, 1-minute candles Source: StocksToTrade

Understand that every stock spike looks a little different.

I’m looking for the same pattern from GUTS on today’s hottest stocks. But the price action won’t look exactly the same.

For a comprehensive understanding:

Study my weekend-pattern framework.

And make sure to watch the market every Friday.

The more weekend setups you see, the more confident you’ll grow with this pattern.

Cheers

 

*Past performance does not indicate future results

How much has this post helped you?

(3 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
Leave a reply
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

* 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”