The Morning Scalp

Start here

Forty-three trading sessions is a lot to land in the middle of. These are four reading paths depending on what you came for — each is three posts and takes about fifteen minutes.

The short version, if you only read this paragraph: I started trading in April 2026, made most of my money in the first ten weeks from two positions I barely touched, then gave a large part of it back over six weeks of active trading. Every number here is reconstructed from my brokerage statement and reconciled against the broker's own per-symbol totals before it goes up. The losing days get the same detail as the winning ones, because the losing days are where the information is. Read: the position I did nothing with for six weeks, and what it paid →

If you want the method

Start here if you're trying to work out how any of this is actually done.

  1. My actual strategy, and exactly where it breaksThe pre-market scalping method in full, plus the three leaks that sink it.
  2. What 890 trades taught meThe whole statement reconstructed. 21 names made +$3,107 and the account still finished down.
  3. Every session in one tableAll 43 published days with the P&L, so you can check my arithmetic.

If you want the disasters

The expensive lessons, which are the ones worth reading.

  1. How SKHU and SKHZ cost me $1,881I lost money on the 2x long and the inverse of the same underlying.
  2. The -$1,108 dayMy worst single session, in full.
  3. 60 round trips in one morningRevenge trading in FCUV, with the fills attached.

If you want the wins

The two decisions that made the account, and what they had in common.

  1. +$2,746 selling SPCE into a squeezeSix weeks of doing nothing, then one order.
  2. +$2,206 on DAIC in a single dayBought at $1.85, sold at $3.20, same session.
  3. Two orders that beat sixty-fourFour orders across two days made $619. Friday's 64 orders made $43.

If you want the uncomfortable one

The pattern I keep rediscovering and keep ignoring.

  1. 23 trades to make $46The day after two decisions made $2,206. The account peaked here and never went higher.
  2. The quarter that actually worked+$4,323 — but two held positions made $5,420 and everything I traded gave back $1,097.
  3. Browse by tickerNet P&L per name, straight from the broker's own per-symbol column.

The one thing I'd want you to take away

Two decisions made $5,420. Roughly 980 trades gave back $3,150. I have written that sentence in a dozen different ways across this site and I still catch myself trading against it — most recently in mid-August, when four orders across two days made more than a sixty-four-order session the Friday before.

If you take one page from here, take what 890 trades actually taught me. It's the piece where I stopped guessing and went through the statement line by line, and the conclusion surprised me: my winners were fine. The account still finished the stretch down.

Latest entries → Every session → By ticker → Who writes this →

Keep reading

Analysis
The quarter that actually worked: April–June 2026

My first quarter of trading, reconstructed from the statement: +$4,323 across 91 trades. Two… +$4,323

Analysis
The tape, six weeks in: my complete log, July 1 – August 8

A complete, number-by-number recap of every trading day from July 1 to August 8, 2026 — 890 trades… -$2,059

Standout session
SPCE spikes and I sell the rest for +$2,746 — my best trade yet

Virgin Galactic ran from the low $3s to an $8.90 intraday high on an earnings beat, a… +$2,746

Standout session
DAIC nearly doubles intraday — a +$2,206 session

Bought 1,410 shares of CID HoldCo (DAIC) at $1.85 and sold 1,400 at $3.20 the same day for +$1,897,… +$2,206

Every session → By ticker → 890 trades → My strategy → All entries →