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Penny Stock Basics

Rules For The Largest Penny Stock Chatroom Online

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Written by Timothy Sykes
Updated 1/31/2023 8 min read

Thanks to my CNN article HERE and FOX TV appearance HERE, my subscriber-base has grown dramatically as I push even harder and do everything possible to achieve more millionaire trading students (see millionaire #1 HERE and millionaire #2 HERE)…my latest ones are a little more private so I must respect their privacy!

In fact, there’s nearly 1,000 people in the chatroom every day these days (up from the 200-300 range a year ago) so we had to update these previous rules to keep the chatroom a useful and educational tool in your arsenal (this new trading software and these video lessons also help)

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CHATROOM

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The point of chat

Chat exists for two main reasons:

  1. So that traders can alert each other to momentum stocks that may be worth trading and discuss trade ideas.
  2. So that followers of TIMalerts have another method for seeing Tim Sykes’ alerts and he can discuss his thoughts on current trades.

A Caution

Most alerts in chat are solely to announce that a stock is on the move: this means that it is worth watching, not necessarily worth trading. In addition, there are plenty of bad traders (as well as good traders) in chat. Do not follow others’ trades blindly and never enter a trade unless you have a plan for when to take profits and when to cut losses.

Help

If you have questions about anything related to chat, please send a private message to Michael Goode or Chicagowaylandstar (Daniel). They are both experienced traders and actually get paid by Tim to help people. To send a private message, right-click a person’s name and select “private message”. They are most likely respond quickly during mid-day (11AM to 1PM Eastern).

Chat Rules

  1. Be polite.
  2. Tickers must be typed in CAPS. Stock chat abbreviations can be found below (and should never be in CAPS). There is also a list of general chat abbreviations below.
  3. The topic of the chat room is momentum stock alerts, primarily for stocks priced under $15. If a higher-priced stock has momentum (such as a 10% move due to news) then it is acceptable. While people can make money from other kinds of trading, scalping stocks such as AAPL or playing merger arbitrage or scalping ETFs is off-topic. Stocks that do not have much volume are generally off-topic as well … to day-trade we need volume.
  4. We are not investors. The chat room is not the place for your in-depth due diligence on stocks you are trading. If you do something like that please discuss it outside of market hours.
  5. Stay on topic during the trading day and for the 30 minutes prior to the market open (from 9am Eastern to 4pm Eastern); keep to stock alerts and brief discussion of potential trades. Feel free to chat about anything after trading hours. If you wish to discuss something random during the trading day, use a private message.
  6. Everything that is not a stock alert or a brief discussion (two sentences or less) of a potential stock trade is off-topic during the trading day. Off-topic posts will result in a gag, sometimes without warning. The only one who is allowed to post anything off-topic is Timothy Sykes, because it is his chat room (consequently, people can respond to any of his off-topic posts).
  7. No pumping stocks or bashing stocks. If there is relevant news, then post it (and post a link). But do not say things like “Come on SIRI!” or “XXX is a fraud.” Always give a reason for why you think a stock will move.
  8. No stocks under $0.01 unless specifically approved by the chat administrator (Michael Goode).
  9. If you give an alert, give a reason; don’t just type the ticker. For example, instead of typing “ECOB!”, type “ECOB dropping like a rock!”
  10. Please no random questions during the trading day (i.e., “What brokerage do you use?”). You can private message Michael Goode or Chicagowaylandstar with such questions during the trading day. Or ask after the market close.
  11. Questions and alerts on whether a stock is shortable are off-topic during market hours. To find out how to check whether your broker has shares, see How to Borrow Shares to Short on Michael Goode‘s blog. If you want to know where a particular trader borrowed shares to short, send them a private message.
  12. Anyone violating chat room rules or just being annoying will be gagged (anything they type will not be seen by others). Significant abuses can lead to completely banning a subscriber from the chatroom. Significant abuses that will lead to banning from chat include but are not limited to: spamming, harassment of other users, use of sexually demeaning or racist language, and encouraging people to violate the law.

Ownership of and responsibility of the comments made in the chat room remains with those who type the comments. We (Millionaire Media LLC, Timothy Sykes, and Michael Goode) are not responsible for the statements of those who make comments in the chat room. We reserve the right to gag, kick, or ban anyone from the chat room for any reason whatsoever. We (Millionaire Media LLC, Timothy Sykes, and Michael Goode) are not financial advisers. We do not give financial advice. We cannot tell you if you should make a trade. All traders need to make their own decisions about what and when to trade. If you are in a trade and do not know what to do, get out.

Helpful hints for using chat

  1. To send a private message to another chat user, right-click their name and select “private message”..
  2. To send a public message (a short message to another user that others can see), right-click on that person’s name and select “Send Private Message.” Please use these sparingly and only for on-topic comments.
  3. Chat history can be found here.
  4. To change sound settings, to to the top of the page and click on “Settings” and then “Sounds”.
  5. To avoid seeing messages for when people enter or leave chat click on “Chat Room” and then “Hide Room Messages”.
  6. If someone posts something that is very helpful, click on the little heart icon that appears when you put your cursor over their message (as shown below). That gives that person “Karma” and the post then shows up in the “Favorites” tab.

Stock chat abbreviations
a/n — Afternoon
b/o – Breakout
o/n – Overnight
pre – Pre market trading
a/h – After-hours trading
eod – End of day
e/r – Earnings release

adr – Average daily range of a stock over a number of days (the larger the number the more volatile the stock).
l/f – Low float stock (very few shares oustanding, generally under 10 million, so these stocks can move a lot on low volume)
ss – Short sell
L2 – Level 2 stock quotes
hod – High of the day (not including pre-market data)
nhod – New high of the day (used when a stock has broken above a previous high)
52s – 52 week highs
lod – Low of the day (not including pre-market data)
nlod – New low of the day (used when a stock has broken below a previous low)
sup – Support
res – Resistance
red – A stock that is below its previous day’s close
green – A stock that is above its previous day’s close
r/g – A stock going from red to green
g/r – A stock going from green to red
etb – Easy to borrow (shares to short)

Common chat abbreviations

afk – Away from keyboard
idk – I don’t know
iirc – If I remember correctly
imho / imo – In my (humble) opinion
ttyl – Talk to you later
bbl – Be back later
lol – Laughing out loud
pm – Private message
tia – Thanks in advance
ty – Thank you
yw – You’re welcome

Common stock / penny stock abbreviations

MM – Market maker
CP –  Centerpoint Securities
IB – Interactive Brokers
STT –  Stockstotrade


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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

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* 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”