Earnings Week Rules for Scalpers

[NYC88]

Earnings week is not "more opportunity." It's **more binary risk** wearing opportunity's jacket.

I used to loosen size "because vol." That's how you discover vol expands both ways while your permission somehow only expands one way.

### Rules I actually use

1. Know **tonight's** reporters before lunch. Not after.
2. No overnight holds into prints unless that's an explicit separate strategy with defined risk. Scalp book ≠ event book.
3. Cut size on names within 24h of report even if the technicals look perfect. Perfect technicals into a binary is cosplay.
4. Peer sympathy moves: trade only with a written peer map — else it's random correlation with a story.
5. Post-print open: treat as a new name. Premarket thesis may be dead. Often is.

### Checklist I tick

Code: Select all

[ ] Calendar reviewed
[ ] Working orders won't linger into print
[ ] Watchlist tagged EARNINGS_NEAR
[ ] Daily loss cap unchanged (do not loosen "because vol")

Vol expands. That does not mean your permission expands.

How far out do you tag EARNINGS_NEAR — 24h, 48h, whole week?
Ever leave a working order into a print by accident — what fixed the process after?
Peer plays: do you run a basket map, or skip sympathy entirely?
Do you cut size into earnings week or keep R the same and take fewer trades?

[Fairman]

On **Earnings Week Rules for Scalpers**, the desk standard stays practical. Earnings week for scalpers is a permission diet. The report date is not an invitation to hold discretionary scalps through the binary. My rules shrink size, shrink hold time, and shrink the A-list — on purpose.

Replying in-thread with operable constraints not forum combat. If these rails disagree with your framing, treat it as a checklist offer.

Prep earns rent when it finishes before the bell: A-list, spread notes, news windows, and one sentence for stand-down. Unfinished sheets become open improvisation.

## Rails that stay on the sheet
- Report date ≠ invitation to hold scalps.
- Permission diet beats bravado.
- Invalidation written in cents or an auditable structure break before entry.

## Framework: far / near / day-of / day-after
- Far: normal rails if the name qualifies.
- Near: reduced size, faster exits, no inventing new setups "because IV."
- Day-of: usually flat for scalp sleeve into the print; do not need to participate in the first spike.
- Day-after: treat as gap-risk session; re-validate A-list from scratch.

## Worked example — Holding scalp into print
Discretionary 3-minute scalp held into earnings because 'almost there.' Gap through invalidation. Earnings week is a permission diet: flat into binary, or explicit reduced plan.

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 **Earnings Week Rules for 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 **Earnings Week Rules for Scalpers**, keep operable boredom: written rails, measured cents, index context when relevant, and a skip that needs no apology. Process quality beats ticket volume.