36 Hours In The Life Of A Trading Addict
Posted by timothysykes on Fri 15th of Feb, 2008 05:18:17 PM
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TIM $15,220, Up $485, An Ugly Way To Make An All-Time High
2/14: Get 2 hours of sleep from a late night of writing/researching potential plays, wake up at 7am for a 9am filming with CBS Sunday Morning. I’ll miss the morning trading session, but this is too big to pass up. Forget the 200k-ish people watching CNBC, this show boasts 5+ million weekly viewers!!
They want to talk about neuroeconomics, aka the science behind making money and the addictiveness of profits/high I get when I make a teacher’s annual salary in a few hours. Sure, I said. Only problem was they want to film at my apartment and it’s being cleaned today due to the massive amount of soot from last week’s building fire. Luckily, one of my friends volunteers his sweet place on the UWS—perfect. See some pics:
My interview, along with an interview with noted financial author Jason Zweig, airs this Sunday sometime between 9-10:30AM ET. It’s gonna be interesting/useful/academic, check it out.
My mom came in to bring them some Bar Mitzvah photos–wish I’d known then they were gonna be on national TV so often, probly wouldn’t had had so many Shirley Temples!–so I take my mom out to lunch, then get back to find only half my place cleaned and POS biotech IDM Pharmaceuticals (IDMI) surging nearly 40% to $2.80, up from $1.50 a few days before, on strong volume, basically a short squeeze. My blog is abuzz with people wanting to short it, I quickly comment back:
“IDMI does not look like a short here, yes it could go down, but where to—support at $2.40. Just as likely to squeeze early shorts to $3.20 and maybe more. bad risk-reward. wait for signs of fading first, right now i just see higher intraday bottoms…remember the best opportunities come about when others are panicking”
Wise, never short on the first big up day. Good advice. Post that at 2:05pm, but then the price rises a little, I ignore my own advice as my desire for profits kicks in, and I short 1,000 shares at $2.91. Within 15 minutes, my original forecast comes true, stock’s at $3.20, I know my only chance at getting back to even is by doubling up, so I short another 1,000 shares at $3.23, average cost of $3.07 now. Stock’s not going down so I cover ¾ at $3.18, stupid $200ish loss. I decide to hold the rest overnight—even with it now touching $3.40—but then, within minutes, the stock plunges below $3—as POS companies often do before the market close—so I cover my remaining shares at $2.90—not wanting to risk an overnight squeeze—now I’m down $100 total. But being a trading addict, I want back in—gotta get green, gotta get green—shorting 1,200 on a slight bounce at $3.02, good entry, comfortable holding overnight.
Valentine’s Day, please, no time, too much work, writing a review about the latest episode of WSW, fine tuning my presentation for my Monday speech at the Trader’s Expo and getting my long overdue monthly newsletter ready. After-hours, IDMI ain’t tanking, that spells morning squeeze, I cover my shares at $2.92, down $8 on the day. Wasted time, wasted time. Back to writing, sleep around 2am.
Sleep in so I don’t get sick, 10am and IDMI did squeeze, up 80 cents, gotta get short, noooo, wait for the proper price action this time—that being a slight crack in sideways price action—can’t get caught in another squeeze. Ok, I’ll hold off. Knock at the door, 5 guys want to clean the rest of my apartment, great. I run to a nearby Kinkos, check the stock, it’s tanking off the highs, can’t miss it, gotta get in, short 1,200 shares at $3.43, something screwy with my laptop, internet’s down. I reboot, nope, it’s Kinkos’ crappy internet. Run to nearby Starbucks—T-Mobile internet is gooood, stock’s hanging around my entry price for an hour, and then, what’s that, a break in the sideways price action—what coulda woulda shoulda been my only entry in this whole mess—stock tanks quickly, I cover at $3.19, nice, up $200, TIM back to its highs at $15k.
No time to eat or check out the girls at Starbucks, IDMI bounces right back to under $3.30—the key price level confirming a break in the sideways price action. Volume dries up, this is gonna tank, I re-short 1,500 shares at $3.28, waiting, waiting, 5 minutes, waiting, gradually downtrending, 5 minutes, waiting, boom, panic drop, I cover my shares at $3.12—another $200+, IDMI could/should go lower, but who knows, still green, shouldn’t short stocks when they can’t go negative, probable Tues. morning squeeze.
TIM new all-time high at $15,220. TIM makes money, in a highly undisciplined manner, others could/should do better—latest and greatest towards proving that point. Check my email, 300+, great, that’ll make for a fun night, at least I see 3 more DVDs sold–honesty works baby!–scroll down, Fox Biz Network wants me on Happy Hour, cool, confirmed, this Tuesday 5-6PM, should be wild. Post it on my Facebook profile. Close my laptop, time to eat, first meal since yesterday’s lunch, chow down some soggy chicken sandwich like a homeless guy while walking back to my apartment to write this post. Now it’s written, go work out you lazy bastard, obsessive day trading is unhealthy.
Now you can Twitter any questions/comments to TIMhelp and obviously you can follow TIM on twitter too!
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Other Websites Referencing This Post
- First Quarter 2008 Review: Earn 21% Every 3 Months And You’ll Live A Happy Life | Timothy Sykes - Stock Trader, Author, Entrepreneur
- TIM 6 Month Review: Earn 47% While The Markets Drop 10% | TIM - Timothy Sykes
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TIM Alerts
View All| Date | Stock | Position | Ideal Exit | % Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 24 | KVHI | Short | $3.70 | 18% |
| Nov 20 | STSX | Short | $3.10 | 11% |
| Nov 18 | PERY | Short | $3.75 | 25% |
| Nov 11 | IIJI | Short | $2.80 | 5% |
| Nov 6 | CVI | Short | $4 | 15% |
| Nov 5 | MECA | Short | $1.95 | 51% |
| Nov 4 | CVI | Short | $4.81 | 4% |
| Nov 3 | NAK | Short | $3.20 | 5% |
| Oct 29 | EVC | Short | $2 | 26% |
| Oct 28 | HSNI | Short | $6.80 | 7% |
| Oct 28 | HSNI | Short | $5.75 | 4% |
November: 9 alerts, 15% avg gain
October: 11 alerts, 14% avg gain
YGE daily chart looks like its suffering from chronik Sykes Pattern Syndrome.
Tim,
Great trading, can’t wait to see the interview, just switched to TOS, I hope I get the same daytrading rules you’re getting…LOL
great job Tim, all time high!!! keep up the good work shorting POSs
to anybody that has TOS, how is their mobile platform? I have a motorola Q that uses Windows Mobile 5.0, most downloads used on the treos work on the Q.
If anybody uses their TOS mobile, i just wanted some feedback. Thanks.
SWC - whats up with this stock?
Looks very interesting.. i could see a few more days of strength .. watcha think tim?
Tim,
jeez your friend has pianos all over the damn place. Tell him he only needs one and the other he can give to me.
P.S. I Finally got your book today! Hoping to have it finished by Monday.
Hey Tim,
Looking forward to watching you Sunday morning! I jumped into AEND today- when it gets to .25, you’ll see a DVD order come through the pipeline:) Hopefully it’s in the next week or so. I’m def. with you on the addiction! I’ve had at least three ‘SET IN STONE’ rules I’ve both made and broken this week.
SWC too scary to go long or short.
AEND, horrific chart, u need my DVD now so u can avoid RANDOM plays like that
Tim -
Thanks for the site. It’s on my hourly checklist for review to try and catch any bit of info I can as I’m trying to pick up this game and *YES* it is absolutely addicting.
How does SOMX look for a possible short? It had a big jump, but there doesn’t seem to be enough volume to really make it jump. Is that an accurate assessment?
Tim congrats on the big interview! I cant wait to watch it!
Hey Tim, I haven’t done too much research into this yet (or had a chance to watch your DVDs yet, will be watching on Sunday), but it sort of looks like CEGE may be forming a similar pattern to IDMI’s chart from earlier this week. Some fluff news ramped it up today with strong volume into the close. If it gains again on Monday I wonder if this will become a good short opportunity, the chart overall is bearish.
SOMX has to get to the 8-10 range in the next few days to make it worth my time…think big gains
CEGE has to get to 4…news wasn’t fluff as evidenced by late day runup, fluff news is defined by a quick irrational spike followed by rational sellers entering
shorting microcaps is not easy, really gotta find stocks up 100-300% within days to make the risk reward favorable
Note taken. Thanks.
Tim,
I watched WSW season 1 and you were friggin’ hillarious dude… i’m inspired by what you do and I thank you for your HONESTY.
I’m just beginning to learn how to trade because I do not get all of these things yet. I am looking to buy your DVD once I get enough cash to do so.
Cheers!
douche
Tim,
Thanks for a lightning-fast training on one page! Shorting. Sounds better than my ‘real job’ of affiliate marketing where competition is probably nearing 100 million folks? I dabble also in mining small cap. GD. Australia
why does anyone look up to Tim? He failed as a hedge fund manager and turned to writing books for income…
booby because if you did your research, you’d see my one big loss came from when i ignored my trading rules. it actually helps strengthen my convictions and others convictions in how u should play these stocks. trust me, the book income isn’t that much, i could easily make more promoting penny stocks, especially with my exposure, but u have no idea how good it feels to just tell the truth, the good and the bad.
booby, ah yes and there is that little thing that i detail ALL my trades, no other market commentator is so open and forthcoming. people respect honesty because its real. no more BS
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ObjectWeb
http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=195
Please provide me with a couple of reliable brokers (address + phone numbers) that will allow shorting of penny stocks. Thanks, John Kaufman
Tim, I love your gab and what you do … THANK YOU for re-inspiring me to live my dream of being a successful speculator.
-Down and Out, 32 yr old, on the come back trail …