The market saw two stops. We looked at what's still standing.

The week at a glance

QLYS stopped out Thursday. CAKE stopped out Tuesday. And IOVA — which we just entered Friday — is already up 5.77% on day one. That's week 10 in one breath. The headline number is -0.90% for the week. SPY did -0.77%. We trailed by 13 basis points. Cumulative alpha since day one sits at -0.90%. It's not a great number, and we're not going to dress it up. Day 50. Win rate on closed trades: 0 for 17. Every single trade this system has closed has been a loser. Every open position except NWL is green. That tension — open gains sitting next to a wall of closed losses — is the thing we're watching most closely right now. Here's the week's trade table at a glance: | Ticker | Engine | Status | Entry | P&L | Alpha | |--------|--------|--------|-------|-----|-------| | QLYS | Relative Strength | Closed (stop) | $176.86 | -3.78% | -3.30% | | CAKE | Relative Strength | Closed (stop) | $109.82 | -2.38% | -2.48% | | TEAM | Relative Strength | Open | $179.86 / $181.65 | -0.09% / -1.07% | — | | IOVA | Relative Strength | Open | $8.15 | +5.77% | +5.77% | | CRNX | Relative Strength | Open (12 positions) | $83.93–$84.99 | +0.05% to +1.22% | — | | NWL | Relative Strength | Open | $6.11 | -4.26% | -3.60% | We also skipped two signals this week — watchlist days, no entry taken. That's part of the rules.

Trades we closed this week

Let's talk about the two stops. That's the honest work of a Sunday recap. **CAKE** entered at $109.82 on September 2. The Relative Strength Engine flagged it as a name holding up better than the broad market — which it was, until it wasn't. By September 9, we were out at $104.34. A -2.38% loss, -2.48% in alpha. No dramatic story here. The setup looked fine, the stock faded, hit our stop, and we exited. That's the system doing exactly what it's supposed to do: cut the trade before a small loss becomes a large one. **QLYS** is a similar story with a worse number attached. Entered at $176.86 on August 26, stopped out September 10 at $163.76. That's -3.78% and -3.30% in alpha. QLYS held relative strength for a few days after entry, then broke down hard in the back half of the week. The stop did its job. It still stings. Both trades are now part of the 0-for-17 closed-trade record. We want to be direct about what that means: every trade this system has closed has been a loss. The system's thesis — that open winners will eventually close as winners — hasn't been proven yet. That's the real risk on the table, and we'll come back to it. **IOVA** entered Friday at $8.15 and finished the day up 5.77%. One day. We're not reading too much into it yet, but it's the first entry in a while where price moved immediately and meaningfully in our direction. Worth watching next week. **TEAM** has two entries — $179.86 and $181.65 — both slightly underwater. Early days. Nothing to act on yet. **NWL** at -4.26% is the open position that doesn't feel comfortable. We entered at $6.11. It's a low-dollar name with wide percentage swings, and it's the one we're watching most closely among the opens. Still inside our rules — but just barely inside comfortable.

What we tuned this week

Nothing changed in the system's logic this week. No parameter tweaks, no rule overrides. The Relative Strength Engine ran its screen, produced its signals, and we took them when the criteria were met — and passed on two when they weren't. The CRNX position deserves a direct explanation, because twelve rows in a table looks strange. Twelve separate entries, all from the Relative Strength Engine, all between $83.93 and $84.99, all still open. The system kept flagging CRNX day after day because it kept meeting the criteria. We followed the rules. All twelve are sitting on small gains between +0.05% and +1.22%. At some point CRNX will either reach its target levels or stop out. When it does, that'll be one of the more meaningful data points this experiment has produced — twelve positions closing at once, in the same direction. We'll be clear about it when it happens.

What we're cautious about next week

The 0-for-17 closed-trade record is the number we can't walk past going into week 11. Every trade that has closed has been a loss. If you're new here, that's the fact on the table — no softening it. We believe, based on how the system is designed, that open positions showing gains are the leading indicator, and that closed losses reflect stop-outs before positions could mature. But that belief hasn't been confirmed by results yet. It's a thesis, not a track record. NWL is our most uncomfortable open position. At -4.26%, a rough week in the broad market could turn that open loss into a stop-out fast — and low-dollar names move in big percentage swings when they move. TEAM entered late in the week at prices that are already slightly underwater. Two entries, both red. We'll know a lot more by Wednesday. And the CRNX concentration is real. Twelve positions in one name means if CRNX has a bad week, this portfolio feels it across a lot of rows at once. That's not a flaw in the rules — it's the rules working exactly as designed — but it's worth naming plainly before the week starts.

Looking ahead to Monday

Fifty days in. Seventeen closed trades, all losses. Eighteen open positions, most of them green. That's the scorecard as it stands. The question we're carrying into week 11 isn't whether the system works — it's whether the open greens will get the chance to close as greens, or whether the market will take them first. IOVA's Friday move was a small, early answer to that question. We'll find out next week if it holds.