Description

My basic trading philosophy can be summed up by one simple quote:

"Trade the ticker, not the company" - Nate Michaud


Saturday, February 1, 2014

Some Tips for New Traders (From Old Blog Posts)


Over the past couple of years, I've done a few guest blog posts for Tim Sykes. A few of these posts were trading tips I had developed through my experiences. Here are those tips assembled in one place:

1. Don’t Be a Sheep.
This applies not just to trading pump and dumps but to following Tim’s alerts as well. Just as you shouldn’t buy into a pump because it has a good story, you shouldn’t buy into a stock just because Tim alerts it as one of his trades. Instead, you should focus on Tim’s reasoning behind the trade. Why is this a good opportunity? Why did Tim pick the entry point that he did? Of course, if you watch Tim’s video lessons he makes after each trade or attend his webinars, these answers become much easier to identify, as he lays it all out for you. Learn the strategy, learn the reasoning; don’t blindly follow trade alerts or pump emails and buy just because someone told you to. You will not be consistently profitable with this strategy, if profitable at all.

2. Get the Right Brokers.
This one seems so obvious, yet I’m always surprised at how many people seem clueless in this area, despite how many times Tim posts it. I personally believe there are four brokers worth using. For buying pumps or OTC stocks, use either Speedtrader (USA) or SureTrader (offshore - they are sister sites). I personally would only recommend SureTrader if you are desperate to get around the PDT rule. I don’t think there are any other real benefits to it, although they have decent borrows. For shorting stocks, the BEST two brokers are Interactive Brokers and Centerpoint Securities. Yes, it can still be difficult to short some pumps at these brokers, but your odds are far better than anywhere else. If you want to be prepared when the best trade setups come along, having the right brokers is crucial.

3. Find Your Niche
Tim teaches a lot of different strategies, and trying to trade them all at once can be a bit overwhelming, especially when first starting. In my early months as a trader, I experimented with buying pumps, shorting pumps, trading Nasdaqs with momentum, and even buying earnings winners. I traded with small size during this time, because I didn’t want to blow up my account, but also I also wanted to figure out what strategy I was most comfortable with and what could bring me the most profit.

Ultimately, I settled on buying pumps. I was successful with this strategy because I then spent months learning everything I could about this one unique area - how to get early entries, how to best buy breakouts. I watched all of Tim’s video lessons about longing pumps - I even tracked the performance of different promoters on a spreadsheet and saved charts to refer back to later. Almost all of my trades were buying pumps from November until April, and only after buying pumps became second nature to me and I’d built up some capital did I move on to working on other strategies such as short selling. Perhaps pump and dumps won’t be your niche, but find what is and pour all of your energy into it rather than dividing your attention.

4. Cut Losses Fast
If you’re looking for a specific trading tip, this one is the most important by far. No matter what you’re trading, you have to be willing to admit you’re wrong sometimes and take a quick loss. Letting losses spiral out of control is the quickest and easiest way to take yourself out of the game, especially if you like buying pumps. You can’t worry about stupid things, like snapping a winning streak or going from being up money on the day to down. In the end, your one and only concern has to be sticking to your rules and protecting your account; because if you’re trading on a small account, all it takes is one bad mistake to wipe you out.

5. Get Level 2
I traded my first four months without a level 2 feed, and looking back on that time now I can honestly say that it was like trading blind. While it isn’t quite as helpful with Nasdaqs as it is with OTCs, it still holds quite a bit of value in my opinion. Get it, learn how to read it, and use it to your advantage.
 
6. TRADE SMALL EARLY
I know I somewhat covered this earlier, but I want to stress it again, as I think it’s a very important point. If you’re just starting, don’t rush into things and don’t put a ton of money on the line, looking for immediate returns. I studied video lessons for three months before I even placed my first trade with Tim’s strategy, and I still made all kinds of stupid mistakes when I was getting started. You can watch and prepare and even paper trade all you want before jumping in, but never underestimate the experience factor. You aren’t truly ready until you’ve had some time to trade for real and get some practice in. So when you get started, use small size, get the dumb mistakes out of the way, and learn the subtleties that only experience can teach you. Your trading account will thank you for it in the end.

7. Buying Pumps Early Continues to be Superior Risk/Reward:
Getting in quickly on pumps upon announcement continues to be one of my favorite strategies, as well as one of my most profitable ones.

http://profit.ly/1MnHUd
http://profit.ly/1MnFtl
http://profit.ly/1MnFlx

The three trades above are all trades I made on new pump announcements. Between the three of them I made about $8,500, and I don’t think I held any of them longer than 15 minutes. One of the most important things to note with trades like this is you MUST be careful not to chase too much. If you don’t get fills, so be it. Chasing for a fill is not worth the risk of buying at the top of a spike right as the stock starts to pull back. I’m aware this strategy lost some favor among people after disastrous picks in 2012, like RAYS, VLNX, VKMD, and SLIO. This brings me to the next lesson:

8. Take Profits into Spikes!
Yes, it is always tempting to hold onto a pick in case it’s the next 1000% runner. Sometimes, by selling early, you feel like an idiot a of couple weeks later, as you could have made two or three times as much. But the importance of taking a shorter-term approach and protecting yourself is huge. While RAYS, VLNX, VKMD, and SLIO were disasters for most traders, I profited on every single one of those trades, making over $10,000 between the four. I did not suffer an account blowup like so many. I did not find myself down 30%+ wondering what had gone wrong. I locked in my profits into spiking, and I protected myself! While my January BDLF trade wasn’t necessarily one people would have been tempted to swing, I sold into spiking when the stock was still strong. I didn’t wait for it to turn around on me, because selling into weakness on these OTC’s makes it very tough to get a timely execution. I will gladly sell out of these picks early and leave potential profits on the table if it means protecting myself from disaster.

9. Breakouts Remain a Great Risk/Reward Setup
http://profit.ly/1MnFd5
http://profit.ly/1MnHV9

FARE gave us a fantastic opportunity early in the month, as it had a big breakout past the $.20 area and went on a nice multiday run, spiking over 50%. We saw the same thing out of ECAU later this month, which had a monstrous run from $1 all the way up to $3.61. While I personally took more of a scalper approach with these by buying dips and selling into pops throughout the run, breakouts also offer the opportunity for a nice swing play (as long as you’re willing to cut losses fast if the breakdown fails). Breakouts were one of the first setups I made sure to learn when I first started trading, and this month reminded me of why, with these two great runners.

10. Don’t Trade Off of Emotions!
http://profit.ly/1MnHUV

Every now and then, I need a trade to smack me around to remind me of this. Capstone had just gone out of business, and the replacement broker I had chosen couldn’t accept Illinois residents for the time being, because they weren’t properly registered with the state. After a week of not being able to short sell (and missing some great opportunities), I finally reopened my SureTrader account so that I could get the borrows I wanted. During my first day with the new account, I found myself wanting to make up for my slow week and itching to short sell a pump from a group that historically has fast collapses. My eagerness to trade outweighed my willingness to truly evaluate the situation, and I started into my short position WAY too soon and had to do damage control rather than exploit a great opportunity (I was down $1500 at one point on this trade). Had I been patient and traded with my head, I could have made a killing on this short. Instead, I traded with my heart, letting my emotions and desire to make something happen take over. This happens to everyone at one point or another, but it is imperative that you learn to control your emotions if you’re going to be a successful trader.

11. Don’t Be Afraid to Walk Away
Sometimes the best trade is no trade. As we creep closer to the summer, action is starting to slow down a bit in the market as “Sell in May and go Away” kicks in. Rather than stay glued to your computer throughout the day and forcing plays, don’t be afraid to walk away for a little while and find something else to do. Even now I still struggle with making dumb trades just for a little action; but allowing myself to walk away during the slowest points of the day has been incredibly helpful in combating that recently.

12. Know Thy Pumper
There are MANY stock promoters out there, and very few of them offer alerts that are actually worth buying. Far too often I see traders talking about dip-buying promotions that are doomed to fail because they do not understand the difference between promoters. Before you even consider trading stock promotions, you must take the time to study the different promoters and learn who is most effective and who to avoid. At the end of the day all these companies are garbage; what matters is who is hyping them up and their ability to make stocks move.

13. Don’t Chase Big Moves!
Whether it’s a recent alert by Tim or the latest hot pump, you do not want to chase large moves. If Tim alerts a buy on a stock, that does not mean that it’s a buy at any price. Tim selects his entry points very carefully, and if you are buying 10% above where Tim did there’s a good chance that you’re not going to have a very successful trade. The same goes for a new major stock promotion. If the stock has already had a big spike, you are opening yourself up to a lot of risk if you chase the spike too far. To determine how far is too far, “Know Thy Pumper” comes in handy. In situations like this, either wait for a dip to get a better entry point, or simply admit that you missed the move and figure out how to better prepare to catch the move next time. There are plenty of people in chat, including myself, who are happy to offer suggestions, so don’t be afraid to ask questions!

48 comments:

  1. Great article - thanks for taking the time to post this. Can you write one covering the various major promoters and their ability to hype?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Tim... I agree... a really great article... and as Chris says, it will be very helpful for beginners to understand how to understand the promoters and what to look for.. Once again... a fantastic article

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the idea guys, I'll try to get something up for promoters soon

      Delete
    2. Hey Tim when you have time can you check out TSNP and tell me what you think

      Delete
  3. Thanks for posting this blogpost and all of the others! It's nice that even though you're a made man, you still seem incredibly humble. This is very refreshing, and I know i'm not the only one who greatly appreciates it. If you are taking requests for upcoming posts, I too would love to see one reference how to "Know Thy Pumper" and maybe a few tips on how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the article. PROMOTOR ARTICLE P L E A S E! Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  5. awesome article, very informative for a novice like me!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great article, Tim!
    You're a gret inspiration! Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for the article, a really great read and really good point about not following Tim's alerts without making your own evaluation.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you, very informative and will keep this close by. Hitting home on the trying different strategies and gives me too much to think about so will try to keep it simple. Really good advice.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tim, Excellent reading your articles really makes me feel at ease knowing how you started and the mistakes you made that lead to your success. I will follow your rule and find my niche first and understand it before branching out to an other...thanks so much Tim.....Hope to have the opportunity to say thank you in person when I become a success and from cubicle slavery :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tim, buying pumps on annoucement? I noticed you stated you were in for only 15 minutes. Is the annoucement something you learn from each pumper or from time you received notice from preferred pumper or an alert from your watchlist tracking B/O's? Also when first looking at a chart pattern on a new ticker from your watchlist, would you look back 6 mos and basically not want to see too much choppy action to determine right setup. I know you said you preferred these but this is an area I am trying to learn and had too many mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Basically when a major promoter announces a new pump I'm treating it like it's a new chart... I don't care about past low volume action I don't think those price levels are key. I judge my entries and exits completely off of level 2, chart doesn't matter to me that early

      Delete
    2. Tim, I've just started your blog tonight.. reading post by post.It's helped So much already! I'm extremely interested in this and am eager to learn. I have no experience or knowledge besides the very small amount I learned in my last semester of High School (I just graduated June 1st), taking economics and personal finance. One thing i'm stuck on though is your mention of "Level 2" .... what does this mean? -Thanks

      Delete
  11. These are awesome tips, thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Tim,
    Noob question here...a couple actually (but all related)
    I notice that Sykes does a lot of his short trading by being directly communicating with his broker through Skype. Is this a method you use? Is it necessary to find good shorts? How much of a "relationship" does one need before that can happen?
    Thanks in advance for your response!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not at all necessary, I really don't know why Sykes takes this approach I use the same broker and I just downloaded the trading platform

      Delete
  16. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This's great info Tim, I appreciate you.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Finding a lot of this to be true on my 1st w/o of just papering it. Thanks for the time you give. You are the man Tim

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  26. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The link for list of promoters is dead. Could you please update it ? Thanks for the article, such a golden knowledge to me.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yes novice traders must read this post, I was also searching for success tips in trading and found your post, did a great job. Trading is smart is the key to success, we need to control our emotions this is what successful traders do , and don’t forget to make record of your trades it will help you in defining the best strategies for you

    ReplyDelete
  30. What you have shared is very valuable and helpful. All the information you have shared gives me more insights on this. Thank you for sharing. Keep it up! Would like to see more updates from you soon.

    Trading Courses

    ReplyDelete
  31. If you are looking for Stock Market Trading then this information is very Important for you.
    Here you come to know about all the stretegies for Stock Trading.
    Click here:- Free Stock Tips

    ReplyDelete
  32. This was so helpful. I have been studying Tim's material for four months now and I feel so overwhelmed. I like your suggestion to just focus on one area and learn it well. THANKS for the great advice.

    ReplyDelete
  33. The simple truth about binary options which many of us do not know is the fact that it is mainly based on predictions. Without proper knowledge of what next can happen to the stock market, you are sure to lose your funds. That is why it is important to be tutored or mentored by a professional trader in binary options. During few days of being mentored by Sir Robert  I've learnt much and also succeeding in trades and has been doing successful withdrawals and was able to recover all my lost funds. Feel free to contact him on: Robertseaman939@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  34. https://www.suretrader.com/ website offline with strange countdown

    ReplyDelete

  35. I will always advice, that when you want to trade, you should seek the assistance of a well trained personnel. I've been trading with Richard Smith and it would be selfish of me, if i don't recommend them. With their well guarded signals and forever active(master class) strategies i have been able to make over 11,200usd weekly, he offers services to both experience and inexperience trader and also make recovery of lost funds So feel free reach out to him on email: richardsmith2488@gmail.com
    WhatsApp: +1 225-277-1646

    ReplyDelete
  36. Investing online has been a main source of income,that's why knowledge plays a very important role in humanity,you don't need to over work yourself for money.All you need is the right information,and you could build your own wealth from the comfort of your home!Binary trading is dependent on timely signals,assets or controlled strategies which when mastered increases chance of winning up to 90%-100% with trading. It’s possible to earn $10,000 to $20,000 trading weekly-monthly,just file a complaint with Robert,I had almost given up on everything about binary trading and ever getting my lost funds back,till i met with him,with his help now i have my lost funds back to my bank account and I can now trade successfully with his profitable strategies and software!! Email: Robertseaman939@gmail.com or whatsApp: +44 7466 770724 

    ReplyDelete
  37. He is a professional hacker, he is absolutely reliable and I strongly recommend him for any types of hacking jobs you require. why i said this is because I have engaged him severally in various hacking jobs and he has never disappointed me nor any of my friends who have hired him also, He has really proven himself to be a professional and a reliable hacker, He can help you out with any hacking jobs including this:

    -Cell Phones hacking (remotely)
    -Credit Repair
    -Bitcoin Recovery (Any type of Cryptocurrencies)
    -Make money from Home (Any Countries)
    -Social media Hacking
    -Website Hacking
    -Erasing of criminal Records (Any Countries)
    -Grade Change

    Email him via: hackingsetting50@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete