If you are not familiar with my history with Tim Sykes, I suggest reading The truth about Tim Sykes from a former critic, followed by my Update on trading Tim Sykes’ system, and Making money by buying stocks on my watchlist. I first started trading like Tim Sykes in June of 2006. I had initially been skeptical of his system but it was hard to argue with his performance. Before I bought his book and DVD and subscribed to his TimAlerts (I am now a lifetime subscriber), I first read every single one of his previous blog posts and I examined every single of his previous trades since he started blogging in November 2007 (his trades are verified on Covestor). If someone wishes to learn from Sykes and does not wish to buy his DVDs, I heartily recommend reading his blog posts to study all his previous trades.
From the very beginning I was successful trading based on Sykes’ alerts and using his strategy for my own trades. I have now surpassed $101,000 in total profit using his strategy. In terms of my total trading account, this is not a huge amount (I have a multi-hundred-thousand dollar account), but considering that I rarely use very much capital to trade in Sykes’ style and the trades are short-term, I have most of my trading capital available to trade my other trading strategies.
Below are a few stats on my trades this year and last. Like what you see? Why not check out Tim Sykes’ DVDs? I recommend Pennystocking Part Deux and TimFundamentals Part Deux (I own both). I don’t recommend TimTactics.
Total profit in 2009: $53,323.78
Watchlist longs (stocks I buy based on my own watchlist): $1,765.69
Weighted average profit margin: 1.45%
Other self-initiated trades: $26,689.68
Weighted average profit margin: 0.95%
Trades based on TimAlerts: $21,314.40
Weighted average profit margin: 1.65%
Total profit in 2008: $48,224.60
Self-initiated trades: $30,991.11
Weighted average profit margin: 3.92%
Trades based on TimAlerts: $17,233.49
Weighted average profit margin: 1.10%
(Note: the above chart does not include my profits from my watchlist longs, currently at $1765 since June 2009)
Biggest winners 2009
Here are some of my best trades this year.
ALAN Short 12550 5/14/2009 $1.012 — Cover 5/14/2009 $0.605
Profit: $5,104.96 40.21%
Stockpreacher pump, shorted into biggest volume around 1, exhausted all IB borrows quickly; was up from 0.48 previous day; goal was to cover around .60
ALAN Short 44500 5/14/2009 $1.009 — Cover 5/14/2009 $0.734
Profit: $12,217.48 27.21%
As above, in other acct, messed up big time; hit buy instead of cancel, and bought 9300 at 1.03 right as I achieved my full position (this is reflected in the average prices; so I really only took 36k shares from 1.01 to .63)
SPNG.ob Short 20000 6/12/2009 $0.177 — Cover 6/15/2009 $0.125
Profit: $1,041.20 29.43%
had death drop from .28 to .08, shorted (with tim) on bounce on a Friday, covered after almost 30 straight minutes of slow drop next Monday morning
SMTX Long 2613 6/30/2009 $0.752 — Sold 6/30/2009 $1.142
Profit: $1,019.07 51.86%
Stockpreacher pump, three separate buy orders all partially filled at .68, .755, and .78; sold near hod of 1.19 (little volume there; was significant volume at 1) and then immediately went short with all 4k shares IB had
SMTX Short 4313 6/30/2009 $0.970 — Cover 6/30/2009 $0.905
Profit: $280.00 6.69%
Stockpreacher pump, shorted quickly to get shares (IB only had 4k shares), shorted when up 40% from .68
SMTX Short 35750 6/30/2009 $0.978 — Cover 6/30/2009 $0.899
Profit: $2,831.40 8.09%
Stockpreacher pump, got plenty of shares shorting with best ask in other account; very aggressive position; an hour later only 220k shares had traded; Stockpreacher losing his mojo; covered 10k after a few hours, covered rest 2 hours before close when big size on ask started getting eaten
OPXA Short 1000 9/9/2009 $4.459 — Cover 9/10/2009 $3.874
Profit: $585.10 13.12%
Tim shorted 30 minutes after me; up from 1.50 to 5.65 the previous day on what was really a small subset of results from phase 2 MS drug trial, shorted when down 20% on day but broke below morning’s lows (not absolute lows, but lows with volume at 4.50), averaged into position; looked to hold overnight, but couldn’t resist covering into drop below lods 30 minutes before close
OPXA Short 1000 9/9/2009 $4.459 — Cover 9/9/2009 $4.184
Profit: $275.10 6.17%
Tim shorted 30 minutes after me; up from 1.50 to 5.65 the previous day on what was really a small subset of results from phase 2 MS drug trial, shorted when down 20% on day but broke below morning’s lows (not absolute lows, but lows with volume at 4.50), averaged into position; covered 1k so the position wouldn’t be all my account overnight
OPXA Short 2000 9/9/2009 $4.459 — Cover 9/9/2009 $4.111
Profit: $697.20 7.82%
same as above, covered when TimAlert cover hit as it tanked a bunch
OPXA Short 2000 9/9/2009 $4.459 — Cover 9/9/2009 $3.969
Profit: $980.20 10.99%
same as above, covered more when it broke $4 and then bounced … was down 30% on the day then so I doubted it had much more; looked to hold 1k overnight
XSNX.ob Short 35000 9/10/2009 $0.202 — Cover 9/10/2009 $0.156
Profit: $1,612.10 22.82%
Stockpreacher / Beacon Equity pump from .12, shorted right at highs of .21 and 10k again after Tim Sykes alerted
Biggest losers 2009
Here are some of my worst trades of 2009.
CBOU Long 19500 7/20/2009 $4.951 — Sold 7/20/2009 $4.800
Profit: -$2,944.50 -3.05%
TimAlert, he shorted @ 5, I thought he bought, so I bought; oh crap. Then I shorted but at crappy price (4.78) which added $900 to my loss
GVBP.ob Short 18500 9/14/2009 $0.396 — Cover 9/15/2009 $0.633
Profit: -$4,395.42 -60.06%
TimAlert, true pump and dump, were shares available at IB sho Tim shorted into +40% morning spike, I took the rest of the available shares; covered when Tim covered
OPTT Short 5000 10/14/2009 $7.695 — Cover 10/14/2009 $7.970
Profit: -$1,375.00 -3.57%
shorted 4 minutes after open on red, first down day after one 50% up day, had faded last hour of previous day, hit a lod of 7.56 and then quickly jumped green and I got out as quickly as I could
Biggest winners 2008
Here are some of my best trades from 2008.
USS Short 7000 7/29/2008 $4.030 — Cover 7/29/2008 $3.336
Profit: $4,852.77 17.20%
USS Short 3000 7/29/2008 $4.027 — Cover 7/30/2008 $2.725
Profit: $3,904.17 32.32%
I made up for my earlier loss by shorting this supernova.
GFET Short 22100 8/11/2008 $0.300 — Cover 8/12/2008 $0.231
Profit: $1,521.78 22.99%
up 300% on no news; shorted during morning panic, didn’t spike back up; held o/n
COIN Short 11500 9/4/2008 $5.592 — Cover 9/5/2008 $5.363
Profit: $2,628.26 4.09%
shorted on breakdown of 5.80 resistance level in afternoon; crappy entry due to BSOD on computer; added on bounces
VM Short 4600 9/22/2008 $3.293 — Cover 9/22/2008 $2.864
Profit: $1,974.96 13.04%
huge one-day spike in last minutes of previous day, companies with similar spikes OMN, RTK, NGD all tanked pre-market, so I shorted at open; covered as it got close to 2.75 from before the spike and big bidders appeared at 2.82
SIL Short 32000 9/24/2008 $3.321 — Cover 9/25/2008 $2.685
Profit: $20,368.00 19.17%
shorted a bunch on green to red after noon, shorted more on attempted break of 3, covered many times, shorted more on bounces; held full position overnight; covered as it dropped
VLKAY Short 100 10/28/2008 $192.990 — Cover 10/30/2008 $143.735
Profit: $4,925.50 25.52%
shorted more on short squeeze; covered prior to forced buy-in
Biggest losers 2008
Here are some of my worst trades from 2008:
USS Short 5000 7/28/2008 $4.500 — Cover 7/28/2008 $4.935
Profit: -$2,176.25 -9.67%
This was an accidental trade due to placing my limit order too low at ThinkorSwim to reserve shares to short.
COIN Short 4200 9/4/2008 $6.000 — Cover 9/4/2008 $6.263
Profit: -$1,102.92 -4.38%
Shorted at break of 6.00 on TimAlert; got whipsawed out and covered as it bounced to 6.25 (Tim and others held)
WRSP Short 7073 9/19/2008 $1.359 — Cover 9/24/2008 $1.683
Profit: -$2,296.53 -23.90%
shorted on second up day from .7 to 1.1 … didn’t wait for first down day to assure getting shares, averaged up; covered in next couple days when volume died; later spiked to 1.90
VLKAY Short 100 10/27/2008 $109.990 — Cover 10/30/2008 $143.735
Profit: -$3,374.50 -30.68%
Up 100% on massive short squeeze; Volkswagen ADR; Previous big bump month ago on short squeeze led quickly to drop off; was first big up day; should have waited until next day to short; gapped up next day
Disclosure: No positions in any stocks mentioned in this post. I receive a commission for every DVD bought through my affiliate link to Sykes’ web store. To see more details on my relationship with Sykes, please see my disclosures. I have a disclosure policy and you can find all my disclaimers there as well; those disclosure & disclaimers are incorporated by reference into this post.
| GFET |
Short |
22100 |
8/11/2008 |
$0.300 |
$6,620 |
8/12/2008 |
$0.231 |
$1,521.78 |
22.99% |
