A tape that only paid on the long side
Our desk traders spent most of the morning pressing short into a mega-cap that kept grinding up through every level it broke, with attempts taken at reduced size, re-entered higher, stopped over the highs and eventually managed down to half off at average. What actually paid came from the other direction: a quick long in a chip name taken for a small move, and a Tesla long held with a stated stop and targets that ran to a clean full exit.
The morning in figures
Net points are per share. Apply your own size to get your own number: at 1,000 shares, 1.23 points is $1,230.00. At 100 shares it is $123.00. At one share it is $1.23. 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 14m 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.
Tesla was the trade of the session and it was worked properly. The long went on near the prior day close, the stop and both targets were said out loud before the trader had to step away from the screen, and when price obliged the stop was trailed up rather than left to the original risk. First target hit, then the rest came off into strength. Nothing clever happened in it. The plan was stated in advance and then followed, which is the only reason a position can be left running while you walk away from the desk.
Earlier, a long in the chip name was scooped on the open and taken off for a couple of points with the targets mis-marked, a small self-inflicted cost on a trade that still worked. That is the pattern worth noting on the day: the longs were quick, clean and barely discussed, while the short side absorbed almost all of the attention.
Amazon is where that attention went. It broke out early, and the first short was sized at half with a stop just over the breakout, which is the right way to express a read you are not sure of. It got kicked. It was re-entered higher, kicked again, then taken a third time as an explicit last try with the stop over the highs, and kicked a third time. Elsewhere on the desk the same name was started, added to, and stopped out at the raised average within minutes. A later attempt on the break was managed better: half off at average to flatten the risk, a planned equal-size add that never filled when the level tagged, then the stop walked up as the name kept coiling and floating. By late morning the honest read was spoken aloud, that every break of a level was only leading into more consolidation, and the desk stood down to watching a much higher level instead of re-entering. That stand-down was the best short-side decision of the morning.
Every trade called that morning
Losers included. Rows with more than one leg were scaled out; open any row to see each exit.