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Trading Lessons

How To Trade the Strongest Stocks in the Market

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 3/19/2026 4 min read

There are perfect opportunities to make money in this market. 

It might seem like the whole world is working against you…

  • Gas prices are rising.
  • The labor market is weakening.
  • The gap between the rich and the poor is widening.

But there’s a solution.

Stocks like Serina Therapeutics Inc. (AMEX: SER) spike 100%+ intraday. And while most “competent” investors tell you to stay away from this kind of volatility, I run toward it.

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

I use a specific strategy to pull gains from these spikes.

And it’s perfect for small-account traders looking to pad their wallet.

The world’s not working against you. You just have to work in the right direction.

The Strategy

I missed the spike on SER completely… that’s by design.

On March 18, during after hours, the company announced a $30 million private placement to advance the registration trial of SER-252 for Parkinson’s disease.

The stock spiked 121% into March 19.

That kind of move can level up your account fast. But that’s where most people get tripped up…

Yes, these stocks can spike 100%+, but we need to have realistic expectations for our trades. The price action will reverse eventually. Nothing spikes forever.

Most traders hold their positions too long or buy at the wrong moment because their greed takes control.

That’s where my trade pattern comes in.

With this strategy, I can target specific price action on the hottest stocks to take gains that outpace the market.

For example, I pulled 3% from the spike on SER. And the day before, I pulled 8% from the spike on BlockchAIn Digital Infrastructure Inc (AMEX: AIB).

Compared to the 100%+ move, a 3% gain doesn’t seem like much. But some stocks barely move 3% on the day. You’d have to play that stock perfectly to get the same gains.

And when we compare it to the larger market, most people will tell you to buy shares of the S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY)

The SPY gained 17% in 2025.

A 3% gain, an 8% gain, a 6% gain… that’s 17% in just three trades. And we see 100%+ spikes like SER every week.*

My Trade Pattern

When a stock is spiking 100%+, it’s tempting to buy during the biggest part of the surge.

I’ve seen too many traders chase these moves higher, only to buy at the top and then hold as the price falls out from under them.

The real setup comes after the spike exhausts itself.

I sit and watch the fireworks. Then I wait for the price to fall and catch a small bounce on the back end.

It’s called a dip buy.

Here’s my trade on SER:

SER chart intraday, 1-minute candles

Most newbies mistakenly think they need to catch the entire move.

You don’t. You just need to catch your part of the move as it appears on the chart.

Small gains add up…

And luckily, SER isn’t special. This pattern repeats over and over again, every week.

Here’s another example.

The move is based on human emotion. And since human emotions don’t change, we can expect to see this pattern in the market for decades to come.

Study this pattern and get ready for the next dip-buy opportunity.

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”