A thin tape that only paid quick, partial exits
Volume was light enough that our desk traders were cutting size before taking entries, and the trades that worked were the ones closed into the first real push rather than held for a full target. A semiconductor short was the one position the desk worked hard, adding to it, walking the stop down and finishing it flat; the megacap longs were handled far more simply and carried the morning.
The 1h 10m session is on the other side of this.
Everything above is the write-up. This is the morning itself, with the names on every call and the room talking through it.
The first long of the session was closed out well before the stated target, for no reason other than the previous day's close sitting just overhead. Stated out loud at the time: better safe than sorry. That was the shape of the whole morning — the tape would give half a move and then stall, and the desk that collected the half did better than the desk that argued for the rest.
Amazon was the clearest example. First attempt long off the lows stopped at the pre-planned distance, no widening and no averaging down. Second attempt went in at a slightly better spot, ran into a partial, and the stop was pulled to break-even the moment vwap rolled over rather than after. Third attempt, same structure again, same partial, same break-even move on the rest. Three near-identical attempts with the risk fixed each time, and two of them paid.
The Super Micro short was the position that absorbed the airtime. It was entered on a rejection with a tight stop over the highs, added to, then watched as the name coiled and started looking more like a breakout than a failure. The target was walked in from the original plan to a smaller number, then to break-even, and it came out flat. Worth noting that the decision to stop pressing came from what the chart was doing, not from the P&L. The Google long at the end was entered on a 200-day test, scaled at the first fifty, and then the scaled portion was added back when the trade held — the one position still open at the bell.
A thin session on light volume, and a green one. Not because anything ran, but because size was chosen for the volume on offer and partials were taken while they existed.
The morning in figures
Net points are per share. Apply your own size to get your own number: at 1,000 shares, 0.94 points is $940.00. At 100 shares it is $94.00. At one share it is $0.94. The desk publishes the move, not a dollar result, because the dollars depend entirely on how you size, and that is your decision rather than ours.
Every trade called that morning
Losers included. Rows with more than one leg were scaled out; open any row to see each exit.