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We Can Celebrate AFTER We Make These Trades

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jeff Zananiri Fact-checked by Ben Sturgill
Updated 12/19/2025 4 min read
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Every year around this time, a lot of traders mentally clock out.

They’re traveling, shopping, only half-watching the market between family dinners.

And they’re missing the best setups …

The market’s hours are shorter this week. It closes early on Wednesday at 1 p.m., and the market’s completely shut down on Thursday for Christmas.

That’s why everyone’s mentally checked out, there are fewer hours to trade during a major holiday.

But while everyone’s distracted with holiday cheer, those who show up to the market have an opportunity to trade the hottest stocks without the normal level of competition.

There are two key trades you need to keep an eye on right now.

Discipline wins during these quiet markets. Don’t swing for the fences, just follow the same patterns we use every day.

My Trading Process

There are multiple angles that we can use to trade in the market. That’s why my seven-step framework exists.

Each step represents a different trading angle: From morning spikes and dip buys to afternoon breakouts and overnight holds.

But during shortened trading weeks, we don’t need to overcomplicate things. The market’s thinner, volume is lighter, and patience pays more than aggression. 

That’s why I narrow my focus to just two key patterns. The ones that historically perform best when most traders are distracted.

Trade Setup #1: The Strongest Breakouts

Monday and Tuesday are our best shots at almost normal volatility this week. 

Traders haven’t checked out completely yet, and we could still see explosive breakout setups intraday.

Focus on low-float stocks with real catalysts: Earnings, contracts, filings, or sector momentum.

These plays can easily spike +100%*, even during a shortened trading week.

Don’t guess or force your trades. Keep an eye on the strongest morning spikes to retest their highs.

Set alerts on the hottest tickers. When the price starts to surge through prior resistance on strong volume, that’s our signal.

Look at the breakouts on Luminar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LAZR) from Friday, December 19. It spiked 160%* as part of a short squeeze.

On the chart below every candle represents one trading minute:

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

Keep it simple. Recognize the earlier resistance, manage your risk, and take the meat of the move.

More Breaking News

In quiet markets, only the best setups deserve our attention.

Trade Setup #2: Holiday Weekends

Every Friday afternoon, holiday or not, a group of traders will clock out early to get a jump on the weekend.

That lazy attitude is what fuels the Monday morning gap up that my students and I look for on Friday.

The early weekenders will buy Friday’s strongest runners on Saturday and Sunday, after I’ve already entered with the help of my weekend pattern. Then I exit when their buy orders fill on Monday, during the spike.

And this coming Friday, the number of early weekenders will likely hit a yearly high due to the holiday and the shortened trading week.

Which means … Bigger Monday spikes.

Don’t wait for Monday to trade the post-holiday volatility.

Look for this entry on Friday, December 26.

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”