Prior-day lows did the work on a mid-range Friday
With the tape sitting inside the prior session's range, our desk refused to chase the middle and waited for defined edges. The Apple long off the prior day low was taken with a tight stop, partialled quickly and trailed to breakeven before the last piece came off higher; the Google rounding long was handled the same way, half out early with the stop raised and the rest taken into a known retest zone. A Nasdaq-proxy long on the undercut-and-reclaim idea was kept small, called a coin flip out loud at entry, and stopped where it was meant to.
The morning in figures
Net points are per share. Apply your own size to get your own number: at 1,000 shares, 2.02 points is $2,020.00. At 100 shares it is $202.00. At one share it is $2.02. 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.
The 1h 12m 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 read was set before the bell and it did not change: price was parked in the centre of the previous day's range, so there was nothing to buy until it reached an edge. That ruled out most of the gap scanner and left two names with levels worth waiting on. One trader said plainly he had no interest in getting chopped up on a Friday after a good week, and then largely did not trade, which is a decision as much as any entry is.
Apple arrived at the prior day low and was attempted long there with a stop fifty cents below. Several on the desk joined at the same level with the same stop. Partials came off almost immediately, the stop went to breakeven, and the final piece was sold well above entry. It was not a scalp held out of hope, but a position whose downside was removed the moment the first target paid. Google was worked twice. The first attempt, long into the level, was stopped almost instantly. The second, taken later off a flattening curve on a short-timeframe moving average, had a defined add and a defined stop below the swing high; half came off at around a point, the stop was raised behind it, and the remainder was sold into a breakdown retest zone marked on the chart.
The one that cost was a Nasdaq-proxy long on the idea that the lows had been undercut to flush stops before a reclaim. It was announced as fifty-fifty with no real conviction and sized for fun rather than for the week. A third came off into the first push, the rest was left with a stop under the low of day, and the low broke. The plan allowed for one further attempt a leg lower; it was not taken.
Every trade called that morning
Losers included. Rows with more than one leg were scaled out; open any row to see each exit.