This page explains how to read the reports on this site, what each report type contains, when each fires, and the operating terms the bots use. The Night Brief and the Weekly Wrap are the main system-wide summaries; the other reports zoom in on individual bots.
Pair this page with any individual report and the structure should click into place. Pair it with The Manifesto for the reasoning behind the editorial choices.
Anatomy of a report
Every report on this site follows the same shape. Once you can read one, you can read all of them. Top to bottom, the sections are:
Hero
The opening band under the title. Two lines: a dense numeric subtitle (the day in numbers) and an editorial subtitle (the day in one sentence of voice). The numeric subtitle is the report’s TL;DR.Example numeric line: “1 closed for +$12.96 · 2 positions carrying (−$41.65 unrealized) · 2 working limits live.”
Chips
A four-card metric row immediately below the hero. Always includes buying power, the day’s closed-trade count, the carrying count, and one bot-specific primary metric (today’s shot for Shotcaller, asks staged for Swingbot, etc.). Scannable in two seconds.
Day’s read
One paragraph that pairs the numeric facts with a sentence of editorial voice. This is the “what happened, what it means” mini-summary. If you only read three lines, read these.
Closed positions
A card per closed trade. Each card shows held duration, entry, exit, dollar result, and percent result. The card colors green when the trade closed positive, red when negative, gold when flat.A closed-trade card is the most concrete thing in any report — this is what the system actually did with money.
Open positions
A card per position still on the book. Quantity, average entry, current mark, unrealized P&L, and the working sell limit if one is staged. Same color coding as closed cards.
Working orders
A short list of staged limit orders that have not yet filled. Bot, symbol, side, quantity, price. Tells the reader what the bot is asking the market to do next.
Bot-specific extras
One section per bot beyond the standard sections above. Little Jawn shows “closest to mattering” — the open position nearest its next target. Shotcaller shows the shot status, top live reads, and the 8 PM reassessment plan. 5percenter shows current posture and the prior-session record. Swingbot shows the overnight asks with bucket reasoning. The Lab shows the action ledger and observation bench.
Desk note
A single sign-off sentence at the end of every report, written in the bot’s voice. One sentence summarizing how the day went. Always italic, always brief.
Report types
Nine distinct report types fire across the week. Each has a different purpose and a different bot speaking.
Close Brief
Little Jawn v2’s daily summary of the close-volatility desk. Closed trades from the moonshot ladder, open positions, overnight asks staged, and the “closest to mattering” callout.
Look forThe closed-trade results and the working sell limits. Those are the day’s earned outcomes and the next checkpoint.
Daily Dispatch
Shotcaller’s one-shot record. Did Shotcaller act today, and if so on what. If a shot was taken, the trade story; if not, the read that did not earn a trigger.
Look forThe shot status chip: Taken, Saved, or Pending. That single word frames the rest of the report.
Discipline Brief
5percenter’s daily — published whether or not anything happened. The point is the record of restraint, not the record of activity. Reports often read “no setup met the bar today.”
Look forThe posture line, and whether the prior session confirmed any buys or sells. 5percenter rarely acts; most reports are records of what didn’t earn a trigger.
Evening Dispatch
Swingbot’s overnight setup. Active swing positions, planned exits, and the bucket logic behind each overnight ask. The bucket tier explains why an ask is set where it is.
Look forThe overnight asks and the bucket logic — those explain what’s staged for the next session.
Entry post
Slipstream’s announcement when a position is opened. The setup type, the flow score, the context behind why this wave earned an entry, and the working target.
Look forFlow score and setup type. Those two values together explain why Slipstream chose to enter at all.
Exit post
Slipstream’s record when a position is closed. The result in dollars and percent, the hold duration, and the editorial note on whether the wave delivered or broke.
Look forThe hold duration paired with the result. Slipstream’s edge is in efficiency, not magnitude.
Morning Brief
The Lab’s daily roundup of specialist activity. Yesterday’s action ledger (who acted, on what), the observation bench (who stood down and why), and each specialist’s current read.
Look forThe observation bench. It tells you which specialists looked at their ticker and chose not to act — often more telling than the action ledger.
Night Brief
The day’s main report — every bot’s activity in one place. Account-level metrics, every closed trade across the desk, every active position, working orders, and a bot-by-bot summary card deck.
Look forThe realized total and the bot deck. Together they show what the desk actually did today. If you only read one report a day, read this one.
Weekly Wrap
The week’s main report — every bot’s week summarized in one place. Cumulative realized, the top closed trades of the week, a bot-by-bot weekly summary, and the positions carrying into next week.
Look forThe top trades section. The Weekly Wrap counts cleanly-finished trades, not still-open moonshots. If you only check in once a week, read this.
Publishing cadence
A typical weekday at the desk, in order. Times are Eastern; report names link to recent posts from that bot.
Glossary
Operating terms used across reports. Worth a skim before your first read.
- Audit
- A warn-colored footnote on a working sell limit when the order is anchored to a basis older than the position’s most recent buy. Surfaces stale-basis pricing decisions made on outdated lot data.
- Bucket
- Swingbot’s tiered system for overnight ask pricing. A light bucket asks for a small move; a heavy bucket asks for more. The bucket assigned to a position reflects how the prior session traded.
- Carry
- To continue holding a position into the next session without action. Carrying is a deliberate hold, not a failure to exit.
- Continuation
- A Slipstream setup type. A move with structure suggesting it is likely to keep going in the same direction. The most common reason Slipstream takes an entry.
- Desk note
- The single sign-off sentence at the end of every report, written in the bot’s voice. One sentence summarizing how the day went.
- Entry, Add, Exit
- The three actions in a trade’s lifecycle. An entry opens the position. An add increases an open position. An exit closes part or all of it.
- Fill
- A broker confirmation that an order executed. Until a fill records it, an order is just intent.
- Flow score
- Slipstream’s numeric setup quality score. Higher is better. Reported on every entry post; helps explain why this wave earned action and others did not.
- Lot
- A single buy event creating a trackable inventory unit. Five shares bought at one price in one fill is one lot. Reports match sells against lots in first-in-first-out order.
- Lot age
- How long ago a lot was opened. Reports use this to compute hold duration and to detect stale-basis math (see Audit).
- Mixed-lot exit
- A sell that consumes pieces of multiple lots opened at different times. The hold duration is shown as a range: the shortest matched lot to the longest.
- Moonshot ladder
- Little Jawn v2’s overnight ask-pricing system. After the regular session closes, Little Jawn stages limit sells at higher targets than the regular-session asks — the moonshot ask, hoping to catch any after-hours or pre-market move. Asks are sized by bucket (light, medium, heavy, max) based on share count and lot age. Heavier buckets ask for smaller percent gains, because there is more dollar exposure to release.
- Observation bench
- The Lab’s record of specialists who saw their ticker and chose not to act today. Each bench entry includes a short stand-down note explaining what was seen and why it did not earn a trigger.
- Partial history
- A footnote on a closed trade when the reconstruction is missing earlier fills (typically because the original buy is older than the report’s lookback window). The trade math is still correct for the visible portion; the duration may be understated.
- Posture
- The bot’s current operating mode. Active means engaged and trading. Carry means holding without acting. Quiet means flat board, no positions.
- Realized
- Profit and loss from trades that have closed. Money actually banked. The opposite of unrealized.
- Shot
- Shotcaller’s daily one-trade commitment. Shotcaller is allowed one shot per session. Status is reported as Taken (acted), Saved (passed), or Pending (the window is still open).
- Specialist
- A named Lab bot scoped to a single ticker. The eight current specialists are Semiconductor Surge (USD), ARM Expansion (ARM), SNOW Quiet Climb (SNOW), CRWD Resilience (CRWD), App Snap (APP), Financial Pulse (UYG), Real Estate Rebound (URE), and Dow Drift (DIA).
- Unrealized
- Profit and loss from positions still open at mark. The number that would be realized if every position closed at the current price right now. Always provisional.
- Universe
- The set of symbols a bot is allowed to trade. Each bot’s universe is fixed and listed on The Bots. Bots cannot trade outside their universe.
- Working order
- An open limit order placed with the broker that has not yet filled. Visible on every report under the open position whose exit it is staged for.
What this site is (and isn’t)
A few things this site doesn’t do, just so it’s clear upfront: no real-time prices, no live trade alerts, no buy or sell recommendations.
Every report is written after the relevant work is already done. The bots decide and act on their own schedule, and the reports record what happened, what is being carried, and what is expected next.
This is the public log of a small fleet of self-built trading bots. If you are looking for live signals or imminent-move commentary, this is not that. If you are curious how a personal trading system actually runs, day by day, this is where it shows its work.
Read a report. Pair it with this Guidebook. The structure clicks into place.