timothy sykes logo

Thank You Shorts (for Being So Predictable)

Timothy SykesAvatar
Written by Timothy Sykes Reviewed by Jack Kellogg Fact-checked by Ellis Hobbs
Updated 8/17/2026 5 min read
Thank You Shorts (for Being So Predictable) Thumbnail

Did you see it yesterday? It was absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks to short sellers, it was almost like looking into a crystal ball…

The crazy thing is, these kinds of moves happen for one reason.

And when they do, I encourage you to focus on only one stock…

Remember This Chart

Check out the FGI Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: FGI) chart from yesterday (August 12):

FGI, 8/13/26, 1-min candles, earnings winner, short squeeze
FGI, 8/13/26, 1-min candles, earnings winner, short squeeze

FGI was the Supernova of the day for two reasons:

  1. It was an earnings winner after the company reported strong Q2 earnings Wednesday after-hours.
  2. Predictable short sellers got squeezed like the bitter lemons they are…

When a stock runs like FGI did, I look for four things…

How To Trade High-of-Day Breakout Runners

Post image

Get my weekly watchlist, free

Sign up to jump start your trading education!

I was late, but thanks to the predictable short sellers it was a nice and easy midday breakout.

Here’s my trade…

FGI, 8/13/26, 1-min candles, 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., easy breakout play
FGI, 8/13/26, 1-min candles, 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., easy breakout play

To trade these summer Supernova short squeezes, keep looking for high-of-day breakout runners.

Be sure they meet the following criteria:

  1. Big Volume: FGI traded 99M shares by 3:30 p.m. Its average 60D volume is roughly 50K shares
  2. News: FGI reported strong Q2 earnings
  3. Low Float: with roughly 519K publicly traded shares, FGI is a micro-float primed for a short squeeze
  4. Convincing Breakouts Over Previous Highs:. Each leg up, FGI showed it could hold and consolidate. Even though I was late, that gave me confidence

Millionaire Moves

Every one of my 50+ millionaire students started with the basics and kept refining until they were consistent.

Starting today, you can do the same. How?

My FREE 2-day bootcamp, Millionaire Formula Conference starts today at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Our mission is to take you from where you are today, to the next level on your journey.

One of the first things we’ll cover today is how to find winning trades. If you want to find stocks like FGI, this bootcamp is for you.

We’ll also cover entries, exits, and risk. Look, FGI went WAY higher and I could’ve held longer for bigger gains.

But based on the chart above (with my trade on it) I did EXACTLY what I’d planned. My goal was to make 50-75 cents a share (I made 86 cents a share).

If you are serious about trading, you MUST understand risk and reward and trade accordingly. I was happy to take the single.

We’ll also cover swing trading and building your watchlist today. Are you ready to FINALLY put it all together?

Join the Millionaire Formula Conference Virtual Bootcamp Today at 12:30 PM ET

Finally…

On My Radar

Yesterday (August 13) Bitcoin dropped below $63,000 per coin (briefly).

Look at this 1-year chart of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (NYSE: GBTC), which tracks Bitcoin’s price movement:

GBTC, 1-year, daily candles, pathetic
GBTC, 1-year, daily candles, pathetic

As far as I’m concerned, Bitcoin is a pathetic asset. I can’t believe so many people are still bagged in it.

It’s even worse if you’re invested in the self-described “Bitcoin Treasury” that is Strategy Inc (NASDAQ: MSTR):

MSTR, 1-year, daily candle

MSTR, 1-year, daily candle

Saylor is stubborn (and shady in my opinion).

It doesn’t matter whether you agree with me, the MSTR chart shows what a JOKE HODLing is.

Eventually society will realize it’s more dangerous than smoking. Maybe they’ll even realize that owning MSTR is perverse financial dementia.

The question is, will people learn from it, or continue to HODL?

Key Takeaway

When a stock is moving like FGI did yesterday, I stop watching any other stock.

I focus on ONE stock only.

Understand that watching small % gainers is irrelevant when there are Supernovas to watch.

You don’t even need to be trading them yet.

If you’re not ready, just watch because the more screen time you put in…

…the easier it is to recognize when you DO have money on the line.

I’ll see you at 12:30 today.

Cheers,

– Tim Sykes

How much has this post helped you?

(0 votes, average: 0 out of 5)
Leave a reply
Author card Timothy Sykes picture

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.
Read More

* 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”