Year: 2009

Update on Tim Sykes’ trading system

As I wrote previously, I have been trading stocks using Tim Sykes’ trading system. This has been quite profitable for me (but is not my most profitable trading strategy). To update my previous post, since then I have made only about $6,000 more trading Sykes’ system. November and December were tough for me in most of my trading (in one trading system I have been using for 6 months, I saw an 80% draw down) and I messed up lots of things; I also dealt with an injury to my wrist that made trading more difficult. Despite all this, I never lost a substantial sum of money on Sykes’ system and continue to believe in it.

Probably the best reason to believe that Sykes’ system works? Look at his trades on Covestor. This comes straight from his brokerage account, so it cannot be faked. So many people who sell trading systems won’t give their real trading performance. The reason is because it is usually very bad. (Please keep in mind that Covestor does not account for cash in a trading account, so the raw percentage return is incorrect; so instead of a 2000% return, Syke’s return since the fall of 2007 is more like 300%.)

If you want to give Tim Sykes’ system a try, I suggest reading all his past blog posts in which he describes his trades. Then consider purchasing his Pennystocking 2 DVD and/or his TimAlerts trading-notification service. (The one problem with TimAlerts is that so many people now subscribe that his followers move the market with less liquid stocks.) I recommend avoiding his other DVDs: TimRaw is one long ramble, Pennystocking is very basic (just use wikipedia and buy Tim’s book), and his new TimFundamentals DVD seems pointless–he has already explained the material in that DVD on his blog.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Tim. I am also a TimAlerts subscriber for life and have purchased his Pennystocking (1 & 2) DVDs and have attended his trading seminar.

My new ergonomic workstation

Yay Ergonomics! If you sit down all day (not good for your back or legs), use a mouse and keyboard all day (not good for your wrists, at least for the more susceptible to repetitive strain injury), and need lots of monitor space, here is the setup for you.

I bought a new WorkRite Egonomics sit-to-stand desk that automatically doubles in height with the press of a button so that I can work sitting down or standing up (the price was surprisingly reasonable, on par with other quality desks that used hand cranks to adjust the height). (If you are in the St. Louis area I recommend buying this or other ergonomic office products from distributor Advanced Ergonomic Concepts; I was impressed by their speed and by attention to detail).


(click images for larger images)

My monitors are all Elo Touchsystems touchscreen monitors. I have two 19″ and two 24″ monitors. I have so far been impressed with their quality. I can’t wait until Windows 7 comes out because it will be designed for touchscreens. Until then I need to keep my mouse for certain tasks (like resizing windows).

So far, my wrists are feeling better after changing to touchscreens. The new desk will definitely help on busy trading days when I do not have time to take a break.

The only thing missing from this picture? Dragon Naturally Speaking 10, allowing me to control my computer with my voice and dictate. Unfortunately, the idiots at Nuance do not believe it is worth their time to adapt their program to Windows Vista 64-bit, even though it would benefit from the 64-bit architecture (or at least from the larger amounts of RAM that a 64-bit operating system can use; 32-bit Vista is limited to 3.5 GB).

[Edit later on 1/14/09 – I was able to install Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 on Vista 64 using this workaround. Thank you Chad.]

Penny stock pump & dumper gets jail time

Normally the SEC likes to just slap these people on the wrists. It is nice to see someone get a sentence of 57 months in prison for pumping a stock while falsely saying he owned no shares.

From the litigation release:

The sentence ordered Sayre to serve 57 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. The sentence reflects a sentencing enhancement because the Court found that Sayre obstructed justice by lying under oath to the Commission during its investigation.