It’s a loaded question, right?
Not every weekend play is gonna work.
Still, I’ve been trading this pattern for over 25 years and it just keeps happening.
And when you get it right, it has the potential to be a solid win.
For me, the key is to be meticulous (and ONLY choose stocks that meet all my criteria).
That means paying attention to more than just “the stock is up on a Friday so I’m gonna buy and hope for the best.”
And it also means not getting greedy, because even winners can fail fast when the market opens again on Monday.
Let’s take a look at my recent weekend for a better understanding of what I’m looking for..
Table of Contents
Breaking Down My Latest Weekend Winner
On Friday (July 17) Southland Holdings Inc. (NYSE American: SLND) had a big contract win through its subsidiary Oscar Renda Contracting of Canada…
SLND spiked nicely on the news and held near its highs for most of the day. One of my criteria for a weekend play is…
The Stock Should Be Closing Near the High of Day
SLND’s regular hours high was $1.22 per share.
It wasn’t the most volatile stock (another thing I look for) but it built support near VWAP and kept testing the $1.18 area.
But is that enough to take the trade? Maybe.
Even though this 1-year chart looks terrible, you can see two things caught my attention…
- Friday’s volume was the highest in the past year by FAR. With a float of only 14.42M shares, SLND traded 205M shares on Friday (14x float rotation). In other words, traders were paying attention.
- It hit a 52-week low on July 10.
That’s counterintuitive, right?
Why would I be interested in a stock that hit a 52-week low only a week before it had news about a contract?
Even if it WAS spiking, is that a high-reward setup?
Think about it this way…
The Company Had Extra Incentive To Close the Deal
I know I’ve said this at least a thousand times but I’ll keep saying it because you need to know…
Penny stock companies are terrible.
They all need to either raise money or have some big catalyst to keep traders interested (or both).
There’s also an important psychological level at $1 per share. Not to mention the possibility of getting de-listed.
There’s no reason to think SLND was at that point as it trades on NYSE American (formerly AMEX). So there’s no $1 per share minimum bid like Nasdaq stocks. But even the AMEX can de-list a stock eventually if it trades too low for too long.
Also, no company wants to be a true penny stock.
Which means that if it can get a solid contract win, you know it’s going to hype the news going into the weekend.
And that plays perfectly into my Weekend Trader strategy.
Why?
Because even though a lot of traders were paying attention…
Less meticulous traders wouldn’t see the news until the weekend.
My Winning Weekend Trade
Part of the reason I took the trade is because the contract the company won is rather large. It’s also a multi-year project which gives it a ton of credibility for similar projects in other communities.
My goal was for it to break the day highs in the $1.20s and cut losses if it couldn’t hold $1 per share.
As you can see, SLND did manage to hold $1 in after-hours and premarket trading. And it did exactly what I wanted it to do at the market open yesterday.
What’s happening THIS weekend?
The Millionaire Formula Conference
If you’re ready to take the next step on your trading journey, I’m hosting a free 2-day bootcamp this Friday and Saturday, July 24th and 25th.
Over two days you’ll learn the trading formula that 50 everyday people used to make $1M+ profits.
What you’ll cover:
- Risk management (so you can learn to protect your capital right from the beginning)
- My entry to exit blueprint: how to go from watchlist, to entry, to locking in gains (or cut losses quickly, when necessary)
- How to develop a winning mindset (so you can ride out the inevitable ups and downs along the way)
- Battle-tested setups that are working NOW in 2026
Register Here for the Millionaire Formula Conference (It’s FREE)
Key Takeaway
Weekend trades can be very high-reward.
But that doesn’t mean they always work. Nothing replaces meticulous preparation.
Still, I’ll keep taking trades like SNDL as long as they keep happening
The weekend trade is one of my all-time favorites.
When the setup is as clean as SLND, I’ll take it every time.
Cheers,
– Tim Sykes
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