An all-gap-down open that never gave back a bounce
Every scanner line was a gap down, and our desk spent the first half hour trying to buy the first real base in AMZN — three quick attempts, each cut immediately when the level failed, before a fourth entry with deliberate room under the lows scaled out into strength. MU was then worked from both sides as it drilled, and an AAPL long off previous day close was taken with a wide stop and an add at the weekly pivot before the tape rolled through both. The morning finished red, and the losses came from re-entering names that kept failing rather than from holding anything too long.
The morning in figures
Net points are per share. Apply your own size to get your own number: at 1,000 shares, 7.31 points is −$7,310.00. At 100 shares it is −$731.00. At one share it is −$7.31. 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 11m 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 scanner had no gap-ups on it at all, and the first idea of the morning was a trigger level in AMZN that had been set in premarket. It triggered, failed, and was cut under the level within seconds. The second attempt was taken into the flush and stopped immediately. The third was a declared base hit with no leash — in and out for pennies when the bounce got smacked straight back down. Three attempts, three stops, each one managed exactly as described beforehand, which is worth separating from the fact that the idea itself was wrong three times. The fourth attempt in the same name was taken lower, with the stop deliberately widened below the lows rather than tucked under them, scaled at the first target and trailed to breakeven before a final exit into strength. That was the one trade of the morning that paid, and the difference was room under the entry.
MU took up most of what followed. A short was taken with a stop above the highs and stopped out on a reclaim; the plan to retry was stated immediately, which is the right instinct but the name had already shown it would run both ways. Two subsequent longs were taken into a tape that was drilling, the first described as a starter after looking away and finding it three points lower, with the stop quickly tightened and then hit, then a re-entry on a reclaim that also failed. Both were sized as starters, which capped what they cost, and neither was given a second add.
The AAPL long off previous day close was the one structurally different trade: a wide stop, roughly a buck and a half, with a planned add at the weekly pivot to bring the average down to where it was trading. The add filled, the average improved, and the position stopped out below shortly after as the broad market broke toward the SPY support zone. The logic was laid out in advance and followed to the letter; the tape simply kept going. That is the honest shape of the morning — ideas worked the same way they are worked on good days, into a session that only paid the entry that gave itself room.
Every trade called that morning
Losers included. Rows with more than one leg were scaled out; open any row to see each exit.