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Master trading around earnings reports using Ape AI’s analysis and strategic preparation. ⏱️ Time: 30-60 minutes per earnings play 💰 Risk Level: High (binary events) 📱 Platform: iOS & Web 👤 Best for: Experienced traders comfortable with volatility 🦍 Recommended Companion: Maverick (momentum/catalyst focus)

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What You’ll Learn

  • How to prepare for earnings season
  • How to identify earnings opportunities
  • How to analyze earnings reports quickly
  • How to trade the post-earnings move
  • How to manage earnings risk

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Understanding Earnings Trading

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What is Earnings Season?

Quarterly cycle:
  • Q1 Earnings: April-May
  • Q2 Earnings: July-August
  • Q3 Earnings: October-November
  • Q4 Earnings: January-February
Peak weeks:
  • 2-3 week period when most companies report
  • 500+ companies reporting per week
  • High volatility environment
  • Outsized moves (±10-20% common)

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Why Earnings Matter

Quarterly earnings reports include:
  • Revenue (sales)
  • EPS (earnings per share)
  • Forward guidance
  • Business updates
  • Q&A with analysts
Stock reactions:
  • Beat expectations → Usually up ✅
  • Miss expectations → Usually down ❌
  • Beat but guide lower → Often down ⚠️
  • Miss but guide higher → Sometimes up 🤔
But it’s not always logical!
  • Market expectations > actual numbers
  • Guidance matters more than past quarter
  • Sector sentiment affects reaction
  • Technical setup influences move

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Before You Start

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Prerequisites

✅ Trading Experience
  • 6+ months stock trading experience
  • Comfortable with high volatility
  • Understand options (if trading them)
  • Fast decision making ability
✅ Account Requirements
  • Minimum $10,000 account
  • Ability to trade pre-market/after-hours
  • Fast execution broker
  • Margin approved (optional)
✅ Knowledge
  • Understand P/E ratios and EPS
  • Know how to read earnings reports
  • Familiar with guidance
  • Comfortable with binary risk
✅ Risk Management
  • Risk only 1-2% per earnings play
  • Max 2-3 earnings trades at once
  • Comfortable with 100% loss (options)
  • Have clear exit plan

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What You Need

  • Earnings calendar
  • Access to earnings calls
  • Quick news feeds
  • Ability to act fast

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Earnings Trading Strategies

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Strategy #1: Avoid Entirely (Safest)

Best for:
  • Beginners
  • Risk-averse traders
  • Long-term investors
  • Small accounts
Approach:
  • Don’t hold through earnings
  • Exit positions 1-2 days before
  • Wait for post-earnings setup
  • Reduce volatility exposure
Pros:
  • ✅ No binary risk
  • ✅ Sleep well at night
  • ✅ Avoid unpredictable moves
Cons:
  • ❌ Miss big winners
  • ❌ Less exciting
  • ❌ Fewer opportunities

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Strategy #2: Post-Earnings Continuation (Recommended)

Best for:
  • Intermediate traders
  • Swing traders
  • Risk-managed approach
Approach:
  • Wait for earnings release
  • Let volatility settle (1-4 hours)
  • Enter on clear direction
  • Ride the momentum
Pros:
  • ✅ Clarity on direction
  • ✅ Better risk/reward
  • ✅ Defined setup
  • ✅ Less binary
Cons:
  • ❌ May miss initial move
  • ❌ Requires quick analysis
  • ❌ Early morning/late night
This guide focuses on Strategy #2

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Strategy #3: Pre-Earnings Play (Advanced)

Best for:
  • Experienced traders only
  • Options traders
  • High risk tolerance
Approach:
  • Enter before earnings
  • Small position size
  • Accept binary outcome
  • Have plan for both scenarios
Pros:
  • ✅ Capture full move
  • ✅ Better options pricing (pre-IV)
Cons:
  • ❌ 50/50 gamble
  • ❌ High stress
  • ❌ Can lose 100%
  • ❌ IV crush on options

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Step 1: Identify Earnings Opportunities (Week Before)

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Build Your Earnings Watchlist

Which companies to watch: Tier 1: Must-Watch (Always)
  • AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, AMZN, META (Mega-cap tech)
  • NVDA, AMD, TSLA (High beta, big movers)
  • SPY components having bad/good quarters
Tier 2: Sector Leaders
  • Leading stocks in hot sectors
  • Stocks you’re already tracking
  • Companies with upcoming catalysts
  • High-volume, liquid names
Tier 3: Speculative
  • Small caps with big moves
  • Biotech with binary events
  • Turnaround stories
  • Contrarian plays
Avoid:
  • ❌ Low volume stocks (< 1M shares/day)
  • ❌ Stocks you don’t understand
  • ❌ Penny stocks
  • ❌ Illiquid options (if trading options)

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Use Ape AI to Find Opportunities

Ask Maverick: 
What are the most important earnings reports
this week? Show me the biggest market movers
and any high-probability setups.
Maverick’s Earnings Preview: 
📅 Earnings Week Ahead - Key Reports

Monday After Close:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

TSLA (Tesla) - HIGH IMPACT
Expected EPS: $0.75
Consensus: Beat likely
Stock: $242
Implied Move: ±8% ($220-264)

Setup:
- In uptrend above $230
- If beats: Target $260-270
- If misses: Support $220

Analyst Sentiment: 65% bullish
Maverick Take: Risky but potential ✓

Tuesday Before Open:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

WMT (Walmart) - MODERATE IMPACT
Expected EPS: $1.65
Trend: Consistent beater
Stock: $185
Implied Move: ±4%

Setup:
- Defensive, steady
- Lower volatility
- If beats: Small move up
- If misses: Rare, bigger drop

Wednesday After Close:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

NVDA (NVIDIA) - MEGA IMPACT ⚠️
Expected EPS: $5.25
Whisper: $5.40 (high bar)
Stock: $730
Implied Move: ±12% ($650-820)

Setup:
- THE earnings of the week
- AI narrative on the line
- Guidance matters most
- Could move entire market

Analyst Sentiment: 95% bullish
Maverick Take: Too much optimism priced in?

Strategy Recommendations:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ TSLA: Tradeable post-earnings
✓ WMT: Safe, small position
⚠️ NVDA: Wait for reaction, don't guess
❌ Avoid: Low-conviction names

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Research Each Company

For your top 3-5 earnings plays: Ask Sage for fundamental check: 
Analyze TSLA's fundamentals ahead of earnings.
Is it likely to beat? What should I watch for?
Sage’s Earnings Preview: 
TSLA Earnings Preview - Q4 2024

Financial Expectations:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Revenue Est: $25.2B (+8% YoY)
EPS Est: $0.75 (+5% YoY)
Whisper EPS: $0.80
Beat probability: 70%

What to Watch:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Auto Gross Margins
   - Target: >18%
   - Last Q: 17.8%
   - Street wants: Expansion

2. Cybertruck Update
   - Production ramp
   - Profitability timeline
   - Delivery numbers

3. Energy Storage
   - Megapack demand
   - Margins improving?
   - 2025 outlook

4. FSD/Autonomy
   - Progress update
   - Robotaxi timeline
   - Regulatory wins

5. 2025 Guidance
   - Delivery targets (key!)
   - Margin outlook
   - New products

Bull Case (Beat):
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Strong delivery numbers Q4
✓ Price cuts stabilizing
✓ Energy business growing
✓ Cybertruck ramping
✓ China sales recovering

Target if beat: $260-270

Bear Case (Miss):
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✗ Margin compression
✗ Weak 2025 guidance
✗ Competition intensifying
✗ Elon distracted (X, politics)

Downside if miss: $220-225

Neutral Scenario:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meet expectations, mixed guidance
Likely range: $235-250

Recommendation:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Wait for earnings release.
If beat + strong guide → Long
If meet/miss → Avoid or short
Don't guess beforehand.

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Step 2: Pre-Earnings Setup (Day Before)

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Prepare Your Trade Plan

For each earnings play: TSLA Example: 
TSLA Earnings Trade Plan
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Report: Monday 4:05pm ET
Call: Monday 5:30pm ET

Current Price: $242
Implied Move: ±8% ($223-261)

Scenario A: BEAT (70% probability)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Indicators:
- EPS > $0.75
- Guidance strong
- Margins expanding

Trade:
- Entry: $245-250 (next morning)
- Target: $260 (+6%)
- Stop: $240 (-3%)
- Size: 50 shares (1.5% risk)

Scenario B: MISS (30% probability)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Indicators:
- EPS < $0.75
- Guidance weak
- Margin concerns

Trade:
- Short $235 (if clear weakness)
- Target: $220 (+6%)
- Stop: $245 (-4%)
- Size: 30 shares (1% risk)

Scenario C: Mixed/Neutral
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Trade:
- AVOID
- No edge, choppy action
- Wait for clarity

Risk Management:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Max risk: 1.5% of account
- Pre-market only, no AH trading
- Exit by 10:30am if no conviction
- Don't revenge trade if wrong

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Set Up Alerts and Monitoring

Before earnings release: Set alerts for:
  • 4:00pm: Earnings release time
  • 5:30pm: Earnings call starts
  • Key price levels (support/resistance)
Prepare to monitor:
  • Earnings press release (company IR site)
  • Benzinga/Bloomberg for quick analysis
  • Ape AI for Maverick’s take
  • StockTwits/Twitter for sentiment
Have ready:
  • Broker app open
  • Quick access to place orders
  • Calculator for position sizing
  • Journal ready for notes

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Step 3: Earnings Release (Real-Time)

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Initial Reaction (First 5 Minutes)

When earnings drop (usually 4:00-4:05pm): 1. Check the numbers FAST: 
TSLA Q4 Earnings - JUST RELEASED

Revenue: $25.8B (Est: $25.2B) ✅ BEAT
EPS: $0.82 (Est: $0.75) ✅ BEAT
Margins: 18.2% (Est: 18.0%) ✅ BEAT

Initial Reaction: BULLISH ✓
2. Check stock reaction:
  • After-hours price: $250 (+3.3%)
  • Volume: Heavy (bullish confirmation)
  • Trend: Spiking higher
3. Scan guidance quickly:
  • 2025 deliveries: 2.2M (vs 2.0M est) ✅
  • Margin outlook: Improving ✅
  • Cybertruck: On track ✅
First 5 min verdict: BEAT, good guidance, bullish reaction

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Ask Maverick for Quick Take

TSLA just reported earnings. Quick analysis -
is this a buy or avoid?
Maverick’s Instant Analysis: 
🚨 TSLA Earnings Flash Analysis

Result: BEAT across the board ✅
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Numbers:
✓ Revenue beat (+2.4%)
✓ EPS beat (+9.3%)
✓ Margins better than expected
✓ Guidance strong (2.2M deliveries)

After-Hours Reaction:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
AH Price: $250 (+3.3%)
AH Volume: 8.2M (heavy)
Momentum: Accelerating higher

Technical Setup:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
- Broke above $245 resistance
- Volume confirming move
- Likely gap up tomorrow

Initial Take: BULLISH
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Tomorrow's Plan:
- If gaps to $250+: Wait for dip to $246-248
- If gaps to $255+: Wait for pullback
- Target: $260-265 (3-5 day hold)
- Stop: $240 (below breakout)

Risk: Moderate
Confidence: 75%
Action: BUY pullback tomorrow AM ✓

⚠️ Will update after earnings call (5:30pm)

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Listen to Earnings Call (Optional)

5:30pm: Earnings call starts Focus on:
  • CEO tone (confident or defensive?)
  • Guidance details
  • Analyst questions (concerns?)
  • Management responses
Watch for:
  • 🚩 Red flags: Lowered guidance, concerns raised, defensive tone
  • ✅ Green flags: Raised guidance, excitement, strong outlook
Ask Maverick for call summary: 
Summarize TSLA earnings call key points.
Did anything change your analysis?
After call update: 
TSLA Call Update - 6:30pm

Key Takeaways:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Management confident
✓ FSD making progress
✓ Cybertruck profitable by Q2
✓ China demand recovering

Analysts Mostly Positive:
- Pricing questions (neutral)
- Competition questions (handled well)
- No major concerns raised

AH Price: $252 (+4.1%)
Holding gains, didn't fade

Verdict: Still BULLISH ✓
Trade plan unchanged.

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Step 4: Next Morning Execution (Opening)

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Pre-Market Analysis (6:30-9:30am)

Check pre-market action: 7:00am: Pre-market update 
TSLA Pre-Market
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Pre-market: $254 (+5%)
Volume: Heavy (bullish)
Gap level: $250 → $254 = $4 gap

Technical:
- Gapping above resistance ✓
- Buyers in control
- RSI not overbought yet

Plan:
- Wait for market open
- Let opening volatility settle (9:30-9:45am)
- Look for entry on pullback to $250-252
- Avoid chasing if runs to $260 immediately
Ask Maverick for entry plan: 
TSLA gapping to $254 pre-market after beat.
What's my entry strategy?
Maverick’s Entry Plan: 
TSLA Entry Strategy - Gap Up Open

Gap Analysis:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Yesterday close: $242
Pre-market: $254
Gap size: +5%

Possible Scenarios:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Scenario A: Gap and Go (40%)
- Opens $254, never looks back
- Runs to $260+ immediately
- You miss entry
- Action: WAIT, don't chase

Scenario B: Gap and Fade (30%)
- Opens $254, sells off
- Fills gap back to $248-250
- Weak hands selling
- Action: BUY the dip at $250 ✓

Scenario C: Gap and Consolidate (30%)
- Opens $254, trades $252-256
- Chop for 30-60 min
- Then picks direction
- Action: Buy breakout >$256 OR dip <$252

Recommended Entry:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BEST: Pullback to $250-252
- Let opening volatility settle
- Wait for 9:45-10:00am
- Buy the dip with conviction
- Stop: $246

GOOD: Breakout above $256
- If consolidates, breaks higher
- Volume confirmation needed
- Stop: $252

AVOID: Chasing at $254-255
- Worst risk/reward
- Emotional FOMO
- Wait for better spot

Patience wins here. ✓

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Market Open Execution (9:30-10:00am)

9:30am: Market opens Watch first 15 minutes: 
9:30: TSLA opens $253.50
9:35: Spike to $255.20
9:40: Pullback to $252.00
9:45: Bounce to $253.50
9:45am: Entry opportunity Scenario: Gap and fade to $250 
9:50am: TSLA pulls back to $250.50

Decision: ENTRY ✓
- Pullback to support (as planned)
- Volume drying up (sellers exhausted)
- Bouncing off round number
- Risk/reward good here

Execute Trade:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ticker: TSLA
Side: BUY
Entry: $250.50 (limit order)
Quantity: 50 shares
Cost: $12,525

Stop Loss: $246 (set immediately)
Target 1: $260 (sell 50%)
Target 2: $270 (sell rest)

Risk: $225 (1.5% of account)
Reward: $475-975 (2:1 to 4:1)

✅ Order filled at $250.50
✅ Stop set at $246
✅ Alerts set at $260 and $270

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Post-Entry Management

10:00am: Position established Journal entry: 
TSLA Earnings Trade - ENTERED

Entry: $250.50
Thesis: Beat earnings, strong guidance,
pullback to support provided entry

Setup: Post-earnings continuation
Timeframe: 3-5 day hold
R:R: 2:1 minimum

Technical:
- Gapped up 5% on earnings beat
- Pulled back to $250 support
- Bouncing with volume
- RSI healthy (not overbought)

Exits:
- Stop: $246 (-1.8%)
- T1: $260 (+3.8%) sell 50%
- T2: $270 (+7.8%) sell rest
- Time: Exit by Friday if flat

Plan:
- Trail stop after $260
- Don't micromanage intraday
- Trust the setup

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Step 5: Managing the Earnings Trade

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First 24 Hours

What to watch: Day 1 (Entry day):
  • Does it hold the gap?
  • Is volume supporting the move?
  • Any analyst upgrades?
  • Sector following through?
Positive signs:
  • ✅ Closes near highs
  • ✅ Volume stays elevated
  • ✅ Sector strong
  • ✅ No negative news
Warning signs:
  • ⚠️ Fading all day
  • ⚠️ Volume drying up
  • ⚠️ Sector weak
  • ⚠️ Negative analyst comments

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Days 2-5: Position Management

Daily check-in: Ask Maverick: 
Update on my TSLA earnings trade.
Still holding or take profit?
Day 3 Update: 
TSLA Trade Update - Day 3

Entry: $250.50
Current: $258.00 (+3%)
Days held: 3

Progress:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✓ Approaching target 1 ($260)
✓ Holding gains well
✓ Volume supporting move
✓ Tech sector strong

Recommendation:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Take 50% profit at $260 ✓
Move stop to $254 (breakeven+)
Let rest run to $270

If hits $260 today:
- Sell 25 shares
- Lock in $237 profit
- Reduce risk to zero
- Let 25 shares run

Stay patient. Setup working. ✓

​
Exiting the Trade

Scenario A: Hit Target 1 ($260) 
Day 4: TSLA hits $260

Action:
✅ Sell 50% (25 shares) at $260
✅ Profit: $237.50
✅ Move stop to $256 on rest
✅ Target 2: $270

Remaining position:
- 25 shares at $250.50 avg
- Now risk-free (stop above entry)
- Upside to $270 = $487 more
Scenario B: Hit Stop ($246) 
Day 2: TSLA breaks down to $246

Action:
✅ Exit entire position at $246
✅ Loss: -$225 (-1.8%)
✅ Accept the loss
✅ Move on

Journal:
- Earnings beat not enough
- Sector weakness
- Thesis wrong
- Next trade

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Common Earnings Scenarios

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Scenario 1: Beat But Stock Drops

What happened:
  • Company beats earnings
  • Guidance is weak
  • Stock drops 5% anyway
Why:
  • Guidance > past results
  • High expectations not met
  • “Sell the news” after run-up
  • Sector weakness
What to do:
  • ✅ Avoid or go short
  • ❌ Don’t fight the tape
  • ❌ Don’t average down
Learning:
  • Price action > Fundamentals
  • Market forward-looking
  • Respect the move

​
Scenario 2: Miss But Stock Rallies

What happened:
  • Company misses earnings
  • Stock up 3% next day
Why:
  • Miss was expected (priced in)
  • Guidance was raised
  • Sector momentum strong
  • Short squeeze
What to do:
  • ✅ Can still trade long if setup good
  • ✅ Watch for follow-through
  • ⚠️ Be cautious (can reverse)

​
Scenario 3: Huge Gap (±15%+)

What happened:
  • Massive earnings surprise
  • Stock gaps 15%+ overnight
Why:
  • Major guidance change
  • Unexpected catalyst
  • Sector-wide implications
What to do:
  • ⚠️ Don’t chase immediately
  • ⚠️ Wait for consolidation
  • ✅ Enter on pullback
  • ✅ Or wait for breakout from consolidation
Risk:
  • Mean reversion likely
  • First move might be fake
  • Better entry will come

​
Earnings Season Calendar Strategy

​
Peak Weeks Approach

Week 1-2 of Earnings Season:
  • Market testing waters
  • Early reports set tone
  • Moderate volatility
Strategy:
  • Selective plays
  • Smaller size
  • Test the environment
Week 3-4 (Peak):
  • 300-500 reports per week
  • Highest volatility
  • Most opportunities
Strategy:
  • Most active
  • Full position sizing
  • Best setups
Week 5-6 (Tail End):
  • Stragglers reporting
  • Volatility fading
  • Fewer opportunities
Strategy:
  • Wind down
  • Cherry-pick only
  • Smaller size again

​
Sector Rotation During Earnings

Watch sector leadership: Early Earnings:
  • Financials (JPM, BAC, GS)
  • Set tone for risk appetite
Mid Earnings:
  • Tech mega-caps (AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, etc.)
  • Drive market direction
Late Earnings:
  • Retail (WMT, TGT, AMZN)
  • Consumer health check
Strategy:
  • Follow the leadership
  • Weak sector = avoid
  • Strong sector = focus

​
Risk Management for Earnings

​
Position Sizing

Reduce size for earnings trades: 
Normal swing trade: 2% risk
Earnings trade: 1-1.5% risk

Why: Higher volatility, binary risk
Example: 
Account: $50,000
Normal risk: $1,000 (2%)
Earnings risk: $750 (1.5%)

TSLA trade:
Entry: $250
Stop: $246
Risk per share: $4

Position: $750 ÷ $4 = 187 shares
(Rounded to 50 shares for this example)

​
Maximum Exposure

Limit total earnings exposure: 
Max earnings positions: 2-3 at once
Max total risk: 3-4% of account
Why:
  • Correlated moves (tech all moves together)
  • Multiple binary events
  • Can’t manage too many
  • Preserve capital

​
Stop Losses Are Mandatory

Always use stops on earnings trades: Technical stop:
  • Below gap fill level
  • Below key support
  • Below recent low
Percentage stop:
  • 2-3% from entry (tight)
  • Wider if large gap up
Time stop:
  • Exit if no progress in 3-5 days
  • Don’t let winner become loser
  • Move on to next opportunity

​
Tools and Resources

​
Earnings Calendars

Free Resources:
  • Earnings Whispers (earnings calendar)
  • Yahoo Finance (earnings dates)
  • Investing.com (earnings calendar)
  • Your broker (usually has calendar)
Ape AI: 
Ask Maverick:
What are the key earnings this week?

​
Real-Time Earnings Data

News Sources:
  • Benzinga Pro (paid, fast)
  • Bloomberg Terminal (paid, pro)
  • Twitter/X (free, follow @EarningsWhisper)
  • Company investor relations site (official)

​
Analysis Tools

Ape AI:
  • Maverick for quick takes
  • Sage for fundamental preview
  • “Why Pop or Drop” for catalysts
  • “Bagholder Risks” for what to watch
External:
  • SeekingAlpha (transcripts)
  • Koyfin (earnings data)
  • TradingView (charts)

​
What’s Next?

​
Master Earnings Trading

Related Workflows: Advanced Skills:

​
Ask Maverick

How do I know which earnings are worth trading vs skipping?

What's the best timeframe for holding post-earnings trades?

Should I use options or stocks for earnings trades?

​
Success Checklist

✅ I research earnings BEFORE the report ✅ I have a plan for both beat and miss scenarios ✅ I wait for post-earnings clarity (no guessing) ✅ I use smaller position sizes (1-1.5% risk) ✅ I set stops immediately after entry ✅ I don’t chase huge gaps ✅ I take partial profits at targets ✅ I limit earnings exposure to 2-3 positions max ✅ I journal every earnings trade ✅ I respect price action over fundamentals
Remember: Earnings are binary events. You can do perfect analysis and still be wrong. The key is position sizing, having a plan, and respecting price action. Don’t gamble—trade with an edge. 📊 Wait for clarity. Enter with conviction. Exit with discipline.