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Millionaire Mentor Update: Why I Visited the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary Last Week

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 2/21/2023 13 min read

Hey there. Hope you’ve had an awesome week trading and studying! As for me, I am SO incredibly grateful I can trade stocks, teach, and do charity work with Karmagawa …

… all while traveling the world.

Are you interested in a laptop lifestyle? It takes a lot of hard work but I assure you it’s worth it. How can you get there? Join the Trading Challenge, work hard, and follow the rules.

I was in Phuket, Thailand last week. I stayed at a remarkable place called Sri Panwa. I’ll tell you more about that in a moment but first I want to tell you about some important work we’re doing.

My charity, Karmagawa, is active in animal preservation and protection. One of the things we’re focused on right now is the large number of so-called ‘ethical animal sanctuaries’ that are anything but ethical. It’s a real problem.

For example, many tourists come to places like Phuket and book day trips to go see elephants. They bathe with elephants and ride elephants. While that might sound like a great way to spend a day, most people don’t know how cruelly the animals are treated.

To get them to load up with tourists all day long, trainers go through a process of physically and psychologically breaking the elephant. It’s called phajaan which translates as “crush.” It starts when they’re only calves. They get taken away from their mother and kept in confined spaces. They’re subject to beatings, deprived of sleep, and denied food.

I don’t want to get too graphic but I want you to understand how bad it gets. Some of the elephants have a hook put into the most delicate part of the head — repeatedly — to control them. These elephants get worked until they can’t work any longer. It’s insane.

We’re doing a whole exposé on how they mistreat elephants at some places that they call sanctuaries. We’re gonna show tourists which sanctuaries are good and which are bad. It’s very important for the elephants because so many are abused.

Thanks to the work of some truly special people, there are ethical sanctuaries. They provide homes for rescue animals. We spent time at the Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. They do great work, providing a final home for retired working elephants. Respect.

Back to Sri Panwa

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While I was in Phuket, I stayed at the remarkable Sri Panwa Pool Villa Hotel. It has truly mesmerizing views. How would you like to have office views like this? I hope you do — and I believe you can if you work hard enough.

 

 

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It’s been a wild February with stocks like $SHMP $ALYI $LFAP $TVOG $BCCI and $NGTF so far spiking anywhere from 100% all the way up to 1,500% in just a few days and they’ll all soon crash too and it’s truly a blessing for me to be able to trade them and profit off of them with these crazy #officeviews here in #phuket #thailand even though the timezone for trading US stocks sucks as the market is open at night here so I’ve been seeing a lot of sunrises! People ask me how I have such incredible patience to hold for such big gains and the answer is I have no idea because I take 10%, 20% or 30% profits max, usually selling too soon, but trading these crazy stocks in a VERY safe manner (or as safe as possible given their extreme volatility!) The good news is I’ve still made $5 million trading like a complete coward and it’s good for me to teach this way too as newbies should prioritize safety first and my top students become more aggressive later on after they master the smaller gains at first. The even better news is $200, $300 or $500-$1,000/day keeps the real job away and it can really add up over time so message me if you want to learn as I will gladly teach you! #ilovemyjob #jewswithviews

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Sri Panwa is one of my favorite hotels in Thailand. If you need some inspiration to study harder, check out their website. But don’t spend too much time there — get the vision and then study with a clear intention to get there!

Trading Stocks from Thailand Means Seeing Lots of Sunrises

Meanwhile, I’m still trading …

Thailand’s time zone isn’t great for trading U.S. stocks. I sleep in late each day unless we have an excursion like the visit to the elephant sanctuary. I wake up, turn on StocksToTrade, run my scans to find the best potential stocks for the day, and trade into the night.

But again, I’m grateful for this amazing opportunity to trade and teach. I keep up with Trading Challenge webinars as I travel and do video lessons about trades. I post those for Trading Challenge students and Profitly subscribers.

Trade of the Week: Hemp-Powered Alternative Energy?

My best trade last week was on Friday morning while I was giving a live Trading Challenge webinar. I made $1,625** on another morning panic dip-buy of Alternet Systems Inc (OTCPK: ALYI). Alternet recently announced the successful completion of a pilot test for their electric motorcycle. They also announced a hemp-based energy storage solution.

There was a charting issue with ALYI that day — I couldn’t see the perfect chart so I was kinda playing it by ear.  As usual, I sold too soon but still made 13.77% profit on the move.**

The reason I was able to make the trade successfully in spite of the charting issue is because I’ve done this pattern a lot. I know it inside and out.  While there was roughly 20% to be made, I played it safe. I nailed the bottom of the dip during a live webinar as I was narrating it. So I’m happy with what I got.

You might recognize ALYI as one of the stocks I shared with you in last week’s update. In that update you’ll see I traded the stock while dining with friends. Here we are again, talking about ALYI, which brings up an important point about the strategies I teach.

Sometimes you can trade a stock over the course of several days — or even weeks — if it’s running.

There are two reasons this is important. First, by swinging for singles over and over again, you can potentially grow a small account. Second, you can forget about one of the worst nightmares of traders: fear of missing out. If you missed a trade, don’t worry. There will be others. It’s better to be safe than chase a trade.

Let’s take a look at the chart:

ALYI daily stock chart
ALYI chart: 1-minute candlesticks; perfect morning panic dip-buy.

Notice the two horizontal yellow lines and the white ellipse? That was the trade. The two yellow lines represent the entry at $.0472 and exit at $.0537. Everything happened in less than 10 minutes.

People often ask me how I have such incredible patience to hold for such big gains …

… my answer?

I have NO idea because I take 10% or 20%. If I get lucky I take 30%. This trade is a great example of the point I’m trying to get across. Swing for singles — not home runs!

Now, before you think this is easy, it’s not. It takes study to recognize the patterns. It takes experience to know when to pull the trigger. That’s why I teach Trading Challenge students to create a trading plan and keep a trading journal. The patience comes while you’re learning — you need the patience to keep studying. After that, it’s all go …

My Students Love to Share Their Success on Twitter

More than one student tweeted about successful ALYI trades last week. Take a look on my Twitter feed — it’s a great way to keep up with Trading Challenge students. Oh, and if you don’t know, you can find all the tweets about a particular stock on your watchlist right on my favorite screener, StocksToTrade.

Another stock some of my students traded last week was Natural Shrimp Inc (OTC: SHMP). This one’s been on a huge run since they announced an environmentally friendly method of growing and harvesting shrimp back on January 29.

I’ve also bought this one several times, as you know from last week’s update. I first bought it at $0.07 and sold it around $0.08 on the breakout. Then I bought again in the $.20s and sold a little higher. Now it’s hit a new high of $.93 and is trading there pre-market (at the time of this writing).

That’s 13 times your money in two weeks! So here’s a shout out to everyone who hates on penny stocks. This kind of price action can potentially happen!**

Congrats to so many students who made 10%, 20%, 50% …

… and even as high as $500% on that stock!**

Here’s the SHMP chart showing extended hours:

SHMP chart with pre-market activity
SHMP chart: with pre-market trading

The reason for showing you the extended hours is so you can see the increase in pre-market trading as SHMP kept running. Not much, but something to understand because it can tip you off to how things might go at market open.

If you click on the chart it will pop out on your screen so you can see it in more detail. Pre-market is the lighter blue to the right of each date mark. Notice the pre-market trading on the 11th and 12th? Study up!

And, finally …

More Breaking News

Question of The Week

What’s Your Favorite Way to Trade Cannabis Stocks?

This is another question from a student. It’s interesting because I don’t necessarily think to myself “This is a cannabis stock so I’m gonna trade it this way…”

I look for patterns. Kinda like ALYI where I’m buying morning panics after big runs. ALYI can almost be called a cannabis stock. As I mentioned above, they’re developing alternative energy storage based on hemp. So it’s hemp-powered alternative energy — which sounds crazy.

I don’t know if it’ll work. My general thought on the companies I trade is that they’ll be bankrupt in 5 years. That might sound a little harsh but too often it’s true. Plus, it keeps me from falling in love with a stock. So Alternet’s idea will either work or they’ll screw it up. Who knows?

Back to cannabis stocks …

… I look for my favorite patterns. Right now it’s to dip-buy morning panics on recent runs. So SHMP is looking nice. It’s not a weed stock but I’ll wait for a morning panic to trade it again.

[UPDATE: Right after I wrote this post I made a killer trade dip-buying the morning panic on SHMP. More about that in the next Millionaire Mentor Update. Best trade of the year so far. I LOVE this pattern!]

Cannabis stocks have been hot …

… but so has a shrimp company, a hemp energy company, and even an ice cream company.

The point is this: Wait for the patterns you’re good at. How do you get good at a pattern? Well, you practice. Use StocksToTrade to practice and paper trade. There are lots of different patterns. Learn what you’re most comfortable with, see how to trade them — then you can be ready anytime that pattern comes up.

That’s a wrap on another Millionaire Mentor Update. Have a great weekend and comment below to let me know what you learned from this post and what you’re studying!


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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. 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”