Halt / LULD playbook for equity scalpers

[Fairman]

On **Halt / LULD playbook for equity scalpers**, the desk standard stays practical. Halts are not excitement. They are a state change. My desk treats them as flatten-and-wait unless a written post-halt plan exists — and for my scalp sleeve that plan is usually observe-only on resume.

Risk rails are mechanical: daily R, PDT slots, post-loss pauses, news size-cuts. Flat is a position. Skipping is a first-class journal row.

## Rails that stay on the sheet
- Halts are state changes.
- Unread broker halt behavior becomes expensive.
- Observe-first on resume for scalp sleeves.

## During halt
- Assume you cannot manage risk the way you could one minute earlier.
- No new size into a halt. No "it'll gap my way." Hope is not a ticket type.
- Know your broker and platform halt behavior in advance: which orders cancel, hold, or morph. Unread FAQs become expensive during the first live halt of the year.
- If you are caught inside a halt: do not add; do not invent a hedge you never practiced; inventory what working orders might still exist.

## Worked example — Marketable into halt resume
LULD halt; trader buys resume open because 'it always runs.' Spread chaos; plan missing. Default: flatten/observe; post-halt plan written or stand aside.

I keep examples in cents and clock time so Sunday review can tag the behavior — not rewrite it as a mood.

## Failure modes
- Ignoring the rails above on **Halt / LULD playbook for equity scalpers** and substituting confidence.
- Adding size after adverse selection because the story still feels right.
- Paying open microstructure tax that midday memory never modeled.

## When to skip
Skipping is a first-class decision — even when the chart still looks persuasive:
- Checklist incomplete at 09:20 ET — observe or one pre-written A+ only.
- Live spread outside max for that symbol and session bucket.
- Index violently disagrees with a single-name thesis and no reduced-size RS plan is on the sheet.
- Platform, hotkeys, locate, or flatten path unverified after reconnect/update.
- Daily loss, PDT slot, or prop buffer tripwire already touched.
- News/FOMC/CPI window where the size-cut card says stand down.

## Closing
For **Halt / LULD playbook for equity scalpers**, keep operable boredom: written rails, measured cents, index context when relevant, and a skip that needs no apology. Process quality beats ticket volume.

[Fairman]

Adding a follow-up to my own halt thread, because the part I kept getting wrong was not the halt itself. It was the first two minutes after trading resumed. I've boiled the resume phase down to a checklist that sits on a sticky note under my main screen.

## The resume checklist
1. Before resume: write down my position (shares, average price), every working order, and whether each one is still live according to the broker, not according to my memory.
2. At resume: no new orders for the first full minute. I watch the reopening print and the first ten prints after it.
3. If I'm holding, I get out at a price I set before resume, or at the first print that crosses my original stop, whichever comes first. I do not re-plan.
4. If I'm flat, I stay flat unless the name gives me a normal setup on the 1-minute chart after at least three minutes of continuous trading.

## Worked example (illustrative)
I'm long 200 shares of a $24 name at 24.10 at 10:41 ET when it pauses on a fast move up. During the pause I check the broker screen: my stop at 23.92 is showing as held, not cancelled. I write down "200 @ 24.10, stop 23.92, exit plan: sell half at the reopen if above 24.40, stop unchanged."

It resumes at 10:46 ET with a reopen print at 24.55. The spread is 8 cents for the first few prints. I sell 100 at 24.48 into a bid, about 38 cents a share on that half. The spread tightens to 2 cents by 10:48 ET. I keep the rest with the stop moved to break-even at 24.10. It fades to 24.12 by 10:52 ET, and I sell the last 100 there rather than hope for another push.

Nothing heroic happened, and that's the point. The plan was written while I was calm, and I followed it once things moved fast.

## Failure modes
- Trusting that a stop order survived the pause without checking the broker's order status.
- Treating the reopen print as a signal. To me it's just the price where the auction happened to clear.
- Adding to a winner at the reopen because it "gapped my way."

## When to skip
- If I can't confirm my order status during the pause, I flatten at resume, no debate.
- If the name pauses twice in one morning, I'm done with it for the day.
- If the resume spread is still wider than my max cents after two minutes, I don't take any new entry at all.

Diagram: a timeline from pause to resume with three boxes (inventory orders, wait one minute, exit at the pre-written price) and a "second pause = done" stop sign.