SPY/QQQ context card before single-name size

[Fairman]

SPY/QQQ context card before single-name size.

Before I size a single-name scalp I want one word on the index (long / heavy / range), the levels that matter (prior day high/low, overnight high/low, VWAP), and a clear agreement check:

- Name setup with index → full planned size
- Name versus index → half size or skip
- Index in shock or vertical on news → stand aside

This isn't correlation worship. It's refusing full size on a single name while the index is actively vetoing the story. Peer-magnet traps get cheaper when the index card is filled first. If I can't state the index bias in one word by 09:25 ET, single-name size starts cut by default.

A worked example. At 09:20 ET my card reads: SPY "heavy," below overnight low, prior-day low about a dollar under. QQQ "heavy," below VWAP in premarket. Levels written for both.

At 09:41 a name on my A-list sets up a long: reclaim of its premarket high at $22.15, invalidation $22.07, planned 600 shares, 8 cents of risk, about $48. The card says the index is heavy, so this is "name versus index." Half size: 300 shares, about $24 of risk. Or skip, if SPY is actively pushing to new lows at that minute. At 09:41 SPY is holding just above its overnight low, not breaking it, so I take the half-size version.

At 09:48 SPY breaks the overnight low and the name loses $22.07 at the same time. I'm out for about 9 cents on 300 shares. The index vetoed the story, and I paid half of what I'd have paid at full size. If SPY had turned up through VWAP instead, I'd still be at 300 shares. I don't add size mid-trade because the card changed. The next trade gets the updated card.

Failure modes:

- Writing "range" every day because it's never wrong enough to feel wrong.
- Checking only SPY on a name that moves with QQQ, or the other way around.
- Letting a strong single-name catalyst override an index in shock. News on the name doesn't stop the index from moving it.

When to stand aside completely: index vertical on a macro release, a big gap in SPY/QQQ with no clear levels yet, or a card I couldn't fill because I was late.

I keep this on the same sheet as the premarket template so it isn't optional theater.

Diagram: the five-row context card.