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Patterns To Watch

The Perfect Trade Pattern for Side Hustlers

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 3/16/2026 5 min read

Most people work toward the weekend.

On Monday mornings, you dread the week ahead… long hours for the next five days until finally, on Friday afternoon, you can stretch out and relax.

I approach my weeks a little differently.

On Mondays, I’m taking profits.

Because a few days earlier, on Friday afternoon, I found an entry that turns my lazy weekends into cash cows!

Don’t get it twisted, I still relax on Saturday and Sunday. We all need time to rejuvenate:

But it’s easier to relax when I have some extra change in my pocket. And it’s all thanks to this recurring pattern in the market…

Last Friday, March 13, a small-cap stock quietly set up for an explosive move into after-hours.

The price action was easily recognizable. But almost everyone missed it because they were already in the car and on their way home to decompress after a long week.

I know, the weekend marks the beginning of your relaxation…

But with this trade pattern, you can go from decomposing on your couch to lounging in paradise.

The choice is yours:

Image created with AI

One Trade. Once a Week.

I’ve been trading for over 25 years.

In that time, I’ve tried every strategy imaginable.

And if you have a day job, a family, or any kind of life outside the market, most strategies are completely useless. You don’t have any time to capitalize…

This strategy is different.

You don’t have to watch the screen all day. You don’t even have to show up every day of the week.

It’s one trade, at the same time, on Friday afternoons.

That’s it.

Last Week’s Setup

These moves aren’t random.

My students and I don’t gamble on these stock spikes.

There’s a science behind this strategy.

Firefly Neuroscience Inc. (NASDAQ: AIFF) dropped a bombshell press release on Friday, March 13.

The company announced a potential breakthrough using AI-powered EEG technology to distinguish between the three main subtypes of ADHD.

Over 22 million Americans have been diagnosed with ADHD, and the U.S. treatment market is worth over $10 billion. But until now, there wasn’t a biological marker to tell the types apart.

That’s the catalyst that started the spike…

And it helps that the stock’s float was just 1.4 million shares.

We always focus on low float stocks because the low supply of shares helps prices spike higher when demand increases.

AIFF spiked 77%* last Friday, and it followed my pattern perfectly.

Here are my trade notes:

Source: Profit.ly

Notice, my final exit on Monday morning was below my entry level…

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

Thanks to the spike during after-hours, I walked away with an 11% profit despite Monday’s weakness…

This trade pattern allows us to lock in gains AND wait for more volatility on Monday morning.

These stocks can explode into Monday… like when BYND spiked 139%* into Monday morning after a textbook setup on Friday afternoon.

More Breaking News

Every week, the spike on Friday is just the beginning.

This Friday, The Setup Is Back

Every Friday afternoon, there’s a new opportunity to trade.

It’s the same window, with the same pattern, every week.

And if you work a day job, this is a perfect strategy.

  • You don’t need to monitor the market all day.
  • You don’t need to quit your job to trade.
  • You just need to know what to look for during a specific window on Friday afternoon.

This is the only pattern you need to focus on this week.

And you still have a few days to prepare. Watch my video below for a full breakdown:

What’s more relaxing this weekend?

  • Sitting in the basement, dreading your Monday shift… 
  • Or excitedly approaching Monday’s open with gains already locked in…

The choice is yours.

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”