timothy sykes logo

Patterns To Watch

The Perfect Pattern For Side-Hustle Traders – $2k Of Proof

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 7/24/2025 3 min read
The Perfect Pattern For Side-Hustle Traders – $2k Of Proof Thumbnail

Welcome to another Friday in this insane 2025 stock market.

Don’t close your laptop for the weekend yet!

There’s a trade that’s setting up right now … And you’ve still got time before the market closes for the weekend.

Here’s the strategy:

Every Friday afternoon, my students and I look for a specific pattern from the market’s hottest stocks.

The incoming weekend inspires a unique price action that can lead to a Monday morning spike.

Our goal is to buy shares on Friday afternoon and sell them into the Monday run.

And on the off chance that the play falls apart – nothing’s a 100% guarantee in the market – a strategic entry with my trade pattern can keep our accounts safe.

Last weekend I used this pattern to pull $2k from the 36% spike on Stem Inc. (NYSE: STEM) into Monday morning.

My trade notes are below:

Source: Profit.ly

I’m looking for the exact same pattern this afternoon.

Watch the video below for my full weekend-trade tutorial:

Last Weekend’s Price Action

On Friday, July 18, STEM spiked 53% as the market learned that BlackRock Inc. owns 2% of the company.

Plus, STEM is in the AI sector. The company offers AI-enabled software to help customers manage their clean-energy assets.

More Breaking News

The stock uptrended all day on Friday. And it caught my attention in the afternoon for a weekend setup when the price action matched my pattern …

Look at the chart of STEM below, from Friday, July 18 to Monday, July 21. Every candle represents one trading minute:

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

Our entry on these stocks is incredibly important.

Yes, STEM spiked 36% higher on Monday morning. But nothing is a guarantee in the market. Some of these plays will fail.

I’ve had to cut losses when stocks fall past my risk level.

I included my last weekend loss as an example below. From Friday, June 27 to Monday, June 30:

STEM trade recap
Source: Profit.ly

Here’s the key to these trades:

  • Only focus on the best plays to give yourself the best chance of success.
  • Use my pattern to keep your losses smaller than your profits.

My students and I look for this pattern every Friday afternoon.

Join us for today’s setup!

And make sure to reuse this strategy next Friday …

One good trade a week can make all the difference for your account.

Cheers

 

*Past performance does not indicate future results

How much has this post helped you?

(0 votes, average: 0 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”