"No time to trade" isn't the real problem

“No time to trade” isn’t the real problem
Tim Sykes trades a 65-hour window when the market is closed.

It isn’t a discipline problem. Most people rule out trading because they can’t sit at the charts eight hours a day, not with work, family and everything else on the calendar.

Here’s what almost nobody mentions. Every week there’s a 65-hour stretch, from Friday’s closing bell to Monday’s open, when the market is shut.

Millionaire trader Tim Sykes built a whole strategy around that window, instead of fighting everyone else during market hours. One decision Friday afternoon. One decision Monday morning.

He calls it the Weekend Gap, and he just recorded a video that walks through exactly how it works.

Watch the Weekend Gap video >>

Tim Sykes · The Weekend Gap

Big Tech earnings split the tape before the open. SPY is off 0.21% and QQQ 0.99%, while IWM is up 0.38% (~07:15 ET). Alphabet is down nearly 11%, but Microsoft is up 1.9% and Meta 1.1%.

THE HEADLINE THAT MATTERS TODAY

Alphabet’s cloud business more than doubled. The stock is still down 11% before the bell.

The Fly via QuoteMedia · Oct 29, 2026 07:09 ET. “Alphabet price target lowered to $332 from $380 at UBS”

Cloud revenue came in at $30.7 billion against the $28.7 billion analysts wanted. The problem was cash. After capital spending, Alphabet burned $9.07 billion, and EPS of $2.12 landed under the $3.02 consensus (CNBC; the two may not be comparable). By 7 a.m. ET, UBS, BofA and Piper Sandler had lowered targets to $332, $380 and $345.

Microsoft got the opposite read. Azure grew 48% with capex under estimates, and Wells Fargo raised its target to $750.

Who’s exposed: Nasdaq-heavy index money. Alphabet is one of QQQ’s largest weights, which is why QQQ is red while the Dow holds near flat.

Next: Amazon reports after the close. AWS growth measured against its spending will show which side of this split it lands on.

Wrong if: GOOGL wins back half the gap by midday. That would mean buyers see the cash burn as a one-quarter build, not a trend.

TOP PRE-MARKET MOVERS

1 · MAX +19% ($14.00). MediaAlpha posted higher Q3 net income and revenue (MT Newswires).

2 · KDK +14% ($1.49). Kodiak AI adds to Wednesday’s 17% run after DTL Transport agreed to put its driverless system in 75 trucks. A Stoneridge partnership followed after the close (MT Newswires).

3 · TDOC +13% ($7.75). Teladoc’s Q3 revenue of $605.1 million topped the $585.6 million estimate, and its 15-cent loss beat the 23 cents expected (Zacks).

Quotes as of ~07:15 ET. Market values run near $860 million for MAX, $300 million for KDK and $1.4 billion for TDOC. MAX has traded thin so far; early prints can swing hard.

He flagged Nvidia at $6. Now a different AI stock sits at the top of his list (From Oxford Club)

HANDPICKED FOR YOU

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Signal over noise. Watch whether GOOGL holds its gap at the open, then Amazon after the close.