Update on trading Tim Sykes' system

My fairly consistent profits from trading using Tim Sykes’ system have continued. Despite some sketchy trading, my profits have been helped by the plethora of pump and dumps recently and me scalping TimAlerts for quick profits (in fact, my recent trade of RODM nearly paid for the TimAlerts lifetime subscription that I bought a year ago). I thank Tim for all he has taught me and I heartily recommend his Pennystocking Part Deux DVD to anyone who wants to learn how I and he trade stocks.

tim_profit_small
(click chart to enlarge)

Note that the profit on this chart does not include the profit from my watchlist longs, which are definitely in the style of Tim Sykes. As I write this I have accumulated $1770 in profits in that strategy over the last 40 days. See my recent detailed report on how successful those trades have been.

If you like more detailed statistics, here is a histogram of my profit margin on Sykes-type trades:

profit_histogram_small
(click chart to enlarge)

Unfortunately I am not the most experienced with creating histograms in Excel. No trades fall below the -16% return bin, but eight trades generated more than 22% profit (they are just thrown into the 22% bin; the largest profit margin was 51%).

Disclosure: See my disclosure policy.

31 thoughts on “Update on trading Tim Sykes' system”

  1. Reaper, I tried investor underground recently. What is that chatroom all about? it’s like CNBC, reporting random stock with new high and low and red/green action. One of the worst. The moderator InvestorsLive pick is 75% wrong. Watchlist consists of 50 stocks. wth? how can you focus on 50 stocks. Your website is much much better.

    1. Alvin – the stocks aren’t random. Anything that is moving (has momentum) is fair game. It is not easy to trade based on that … it takes practice and skill. I haven’t made a ton of money because of the chat, but it is still worth it to me because they occasionally alert me to stocks I might want to trade.

  2. The IL chat is actually a great value for what it costs!

    I like Reaper seldom trade off it but its much easier to get a feel on what is moving by wading into the chat stream. And waiting for the type of setup you are looking for.

    I tried using the more frequent trading momo style and I am just not good at it. I prefer picking 5-10 watches a day and if they hit my triggers I trade them, if they don’t trigger I don’t trade.

    This more patient/disciplined approach has exponentially improved my profitability. And for me its much less disconcerting then trying to make 10-100 trades a day.

    But if you want to be a fast trader/scalper, the IL chat is the best I’ve seen anywhere, mainly due to the NO NOISE policy.

    1. Yeah i agree with tim, i too prefer watching few stocks and waiting to see if it hits my trigger points….helps me plan trade prior to entering it…

      IL chat room is sometimes a mad house…soo many traders chatting, it gets chaotic…

  3. That’s some great stats, I can safely say I have learned from you and Tim. I can also say that trading in the style of you and Tim has made me more money than just following alerts, which is what Tim really wants anyway.
    My trading performance page is shaping up nicely, and I still have tons to learn. I am also learning what a trading system should do and look like, something I had no idea of a few weeks ago.
    When one developes something his or her self it is always a better leaning tool, no matter if you get it right the first time or not, to truly understand something you have no every detail of it’s inner workings. When something goes wrong chances are you know exactly what and where it is, tweak it a little and move on.

  4. That is truly one of the most hilarious things I have seen in some time. Just spent 30min reading, I really can’t believe those people are that naive, it really makes me feel advanced in some ways.
    Huh, let a few notches out of my cap. 🙂

  5. yea on yahoo boards they were all giddy on LUNA going up to 4$ and everything. I said the stock chart is akin to dangling a nice tbone in front of a hungry dog as far as shorters go… Now its under 1.91… Man I feel sorry for though guys who were planning to go long.

  6. yea it is hilarious. Problem is you have to expect it, everyone wants their stock to go up and when someone goes against your stock short is makes you angry because their short positions are losing you money.. They will defend it to the last breath no matter how nasty it gets.

  7. hmm that actually makes sense lolz. if your watchlist intesect with Investor Underground then go for it… I’m still on my 4th day of free trial and got super confused they are throwing random stocks

  8. lol, the whole hedging thing didn’t work out. Gave back yesterdays partial profits on it today.

    Spread too wide, orders to slow on this type of stock.

    Most importantly, it did the worst possible thing for me, broke support, causing me to take off half the hedge. And then stopped, causing me to panic and cover the other half, paying the spread.

    Oh well, it was a painless lesson and now I won’t bother trying this again.

    PS Your note on the stair step move up in yesterdays video was a good pt I hadn’t incorporated into this trade. thx

  9. well, it did technically go green yesterday afternoon by a couple pennies, but I did hedge it before it went green yesterday.

    But you are right, i should have made it exhibit more strength.

    but overall, fuck that, i am going to stick to scalping, had $400 yesterday on 6000 shares and didn’t take it

  10. Pretty dang impressive results Reaper.
    Hope you used some to give the mrs. something nice/

    Looks like roughly three trades represented the bulk of the profits. Was that as result of abnormally large Position size on those? My guess is position sizing is one of the keys to your success here.

    That was quite a dryspell you had between november and May. But since you didn’t lose a whole lot of ground that’s what makes TIm’s system so palatable. 🙂

    thanks as always for what you do.

    1. Oh, and don’t worry, I always treat Lady Reaper generously. Of course it is her stable job that allows me to indulge myself by playing with stocks, and her earnings are not inconsequential.

  11. I had the same feelings as poster #2 re: IU.

    The twitter read.. 90% gains on stock X since chat alert. Gratz on 40% gain on stock Y from our chat alert. HUGE alert on stock Z, we are up etc, etc.

    Figure I’d try the site out.

    Been looking at the chat for a couple days now, and it’s been a little confusing. Mostly because anything that is moving has an alert.

    I decided to get my feet wet and trade a couple stocks the room looked hot on. Now I’m down 25% on today’s chat.

    Keep up the good work on your blog Reaper. Not sure if IU is worth the high monthly fee.

    1. That is not really a valid question. This is only one of a few different trading strategies I employ, and most of the time I trade it with small position sizes relative to my account size; for many penny stocks the liquidity is such that I cannot take a big position even if I want to do so. My largest position size was $100,000, which I have only used a few times. My account is obviously larger than that.

      See my trading profits page: http://www.reapertrades.com/trading-profits/

  12. nooo when you started using Tim Strategy , what was your account size?

    Type your comment here

    Reaper :

    That is not really a valid question. This is only one of a few different trading strategies I employ, and most of the time I trade it with small position sizes relative to my account size; for many penny stocks the liquidity is such that I cannot take a big position even if I want to do so. My largest position size was $100,000, which I have only used a few times. My account is obviously larger than that.
    See my trading profits page: http://www.reapertrades.com/trading-profits/

    Reaper :

    That is not really a valid question. This is only one of a few different trading strategies I employ, and most of the time I trade it with small position sizes relative to my account size; for many penny stocks the liquidity is such that I cannot take a big position even if I want to do so. My largest position size was $100,000, which I have only used a few times. My account is obviously larger than that.
    See my trading profits page: http://www.reapertrades.com/trading-profits/

    1. jj – I was responding to that question. I’ll tell you that my accounts were probably around $350k then. But that doesn’t mean much. While my TimProfits are small in relation to that, my total return in 2008 for example was significantly over 50%. For all my trading strategies my percentage returns will be lower than they could be because my goal is to maximize my dollar profits, hence I keep way more cash in my accounts than I need.

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