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Two Tools To Help You Trade Smart

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Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 8/7/2026 6 min read
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Have you noticed how much information there is out there about trading? It’s almost too much.

Which is why I want you to have…

2 free tools that can help you cut through the noise and trade smart.

It’s simple, really…

Today’s market isn’t the same as when I got started.

Back then, we traded at the market open and during power-hour at the end of the day.

Today?

It’s all go, all hours, every day the market is open.

That’s why I’m sharing this…

1 After-Hours + 1 Premarket = 2 Must-Have Free Tools

I really think more people should be focusing on after-hours plays right now. Frankly, it’s been easier than premarket lately.

My team and I just put together this new tool that scans for after-hours plays (we’ve been working on it for the past few months).

Why have we put so much time into it?

Because after-hours trading has been CRAZY!

Night after night it’s the wildest action I’ve seen in YEARS (and I love it).

Now that it’s ready, I’m using it to create an after-hours watchlist to send to you every day the market is open.

We call it…

The Night Tape

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Get my weekly watchlist, free

Sign up to jump start your trading education!

The best part is…

The Night Tape is free.

Just sign up below and you’ll get your first watchlist after the market closes today.

Plus: you get instant access to my free guide called “The Second Session.”

This guide is CRUCIAL if you’re new to after-hours trading. (Even experienced traders can learn something.)

It’ll take you about 20 minutes to read and it explains everything you need to know, including:

  • The five patterns I look for after-hours (so you don’t have to play guessing games)
  • A 5-step checklist to complete before you make your first after-hours trade
  • 5 questions you should answer before EVERY after-hours trade (most people naively skip #5, which is CRUCIAL)

Let’s unpack that last one a little. I won’t give it away, because you REALLY need to read the guide.

But question #5 on the list is the one that most traders miss and it can prove to be VERY costly.

You could be completely on track about an after-hours move but this ONE thing can cost you money from the moment you enter a trade.

Register for the Night Tape and Get Your First After-Hours Watchlist Today

Okay, I promised you TWO tools to trade smart.

Just like The Night Tape, this one is free and…

You don’t even have to sign up for anything. All you need to do is…

Follow Me On X for My Morning Watchlist Tweet

This is NOT about me getting more followers on social media.

It is about YOU getting access to one of my top free tools: my premarket tweet watchlist.

Every morning, I tweet three or four charts. Where do I find them? The StocksToTrade Top % Gainers scan.

Easy, right? Still, 10-15 stocks show up on that scan every morning at 4:00 a.m. ET sharp.

So, I look through the charts, check for catalysts, and go through my internal checklist to determine what’s worth watching.

Then, I tweet charts of the three or four that look like they have potential.

Weirdly…

My Moron Haters Mistakenly Believe I Cherry Pick

Cherry pick? Seriously? It’s not like anybody reads a newspaper to pick stocks any more, right?

Image created by Google Gemini
Image created by Google Gemini

Look, there are literally THOUSANDS of stock listed on the major U.S. exchanges. When you add in all the ETFs it’s over 9,000 tickers to choose from. If you like OTCS… add another 12,000.

So, for my moron haters with nothing better to do than troll from your parents’ basement because you have no life…

You can’t possibly know what to trade without using scans. Even then, what does it even mean to cherry pick when a watchlist is already getting it down to 3 or 4 out of thousands? (My haters REALLY aren’t very smart.)

It’s a matter of using scans, using my experience to decide what to watch, and tweeting out my watchlist. That’s it.

Key Takeaway

Too many new (and experienced) traders try to do everything by themselves. Others expect everything to be handed to them on a platter.

Neither of those two approaches makes sense.

You have access to SO much useful information (I WISH someone had been there to send useful watchlists to me back in the day).

The problem is almost getting TOO MUCH information.

The two simple watchlists, one premarket and one after-hours, can help you cut HOURS from your day.

Now it’s up to you to study hard and put them to good use.

Cheers,

– Tim Sykes

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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”