timothy sykes logo

Trading Lessons

Attn. Side-Hustle Traders – The Dream Is Real!

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 6/9/2025 6 min read
Attn. Side-Hustle Traders – The Dream Is Real! Thumbnail

Everyone wants an edge in life.

For example, I just watched Carlos Alcaraz battle his way back to win the French open.

And he has a huge edge as a tennis player.

Look at my post below for a recap of his win …

Carlos started playing tennis at just 4 years old!

And he started, of all places, at his father’s tennis club, Real Sociedad Club de Campo de Murcia.

Any athlete who starts at a young age is sure to have an edge. But Carlos was also born into a tennis family and grew up in a highly competitive environment for the sport.

I used to play tennis too, until an injury ruined my career. That’s when I found trading.

And I’ve used the same skills from tennis to find an edge in the market …

One of the most effective ways to gain an edge in the stock market is by using information inefficiencies.

Essentially, it means that market news will reach people at different times. And as a result, we all react to the news at different times.

We see this strategy at play in the market when Wall Street pays for early news. We also see it from trading firms that lay exclusive fiber optic cables for lightning-quick order executions.

Side-hustle traders can leverage this equation.

You don’t have to be first to the news if there’s an event that stops other traders from buying shares.

Thanks to Saturday and Sunday, when the market is closed, we can extend the time it takes for other traders to act on critical news.

That gives us a huge advantage in the market.

And it’s the main idea behind my weekend pattern.

Perfect Side-Hustle Price Action

© Millionaire Media, LLC

Every Friday afternoon, I look for the same price action from the market’s hottest stocks.

When I see a good setup, I buy shares.

And when lazy traders, who left the office early, find these plays over the weekend, their buy orders send the stock price higher on Monday.

For example, last weekend, from Friday to Monday, I profited from Chegg Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) with this exact pattern.

Look at my notes below:

Source: Profit.ly

I made an 8% profit from this stock.

I wanted more, but an 8% profit with a textbook trade pattern … I’ll take that all day long.

Especially when we consider:

  • Most traders lose.
  • And the S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) has returned an annual average gain of 10%.

Most investors hope for 10% on the year …

My millionaire students and I can find 10% moves in less than 24 trading hours.

You don’t have to watch the market all day every day. Just prepare for the next weekend setup.

Watch my video below for a full tutorial:

Study last weekend’s price action to ensure that you’re prepared for this coming Friday.

Because there’s no time to check your notes once these stocks start to run.

Last Weekend’s Price Action

© Millionaire Media, LLC

Volatile stocks can follow the same pattern over and over again because people are predictable during times of high stress.

Recall that I said the SPY returns an average of 10% annually? CHGG spiked 48% yesterday …

That’s four years of market momentum in a single day.

And the price spiked even higher on Monday. The entire move currently measures 56%.

The reason for the spike: CHGG announced that it was pivoting its business to become a back-end AI data provider.

This shows that the AI sector is still red hot. And the business pivot shows signs of added value in the future for CHGG.

On Friday, June 6, the stock started to pick up steam. I watched as the price consolidated into the close (especially around the $1.60 level).

That’s the price action that I like to see. So I bought shares.

And on Monday morning I sold for an 8% profit.

Look at the CHGG chart below from Friday to Monday. Every candle represents one trading minute:

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

That’s just one example …

I look for this setup every Friday.

Here’s another example from earlier this year:

Source: Profit.ly

This is the perfect strategy for side hustle traders.

You don’t have to worry about the stock market during the week.

Instead, work your day job, take care of the kids, go to school, etc. …

And look for this price action every Friday afternoon.

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

* 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”