Pre-earnings call buying · Runup-based tiers · Ichimoku trend filter · 16-25 days to earnings · Exit day-before announcement · No partials, no stops
THE SETUP
Buy a 30-DTE near-the-money call 16-25 trading days before earnings. Earnings IV ramp lifts option premium pre-event. Exit the day before announcement. Never holds through earnings.
THE EDGE
IBKR 10-year validation. V4 gate (RSI 30-50, runup ≥15, td 16-25, spread ≤3, drop BEAR+runup<50) with forward-safe FIRST-day entry. OOS test E(R) = +0.20R (held-out 2021-2025). Two tiers for display: HC (runup ≥50) and SC (runup 15-50). Flat 10% per position, max 5 concurrent = 50% cap. 4-state Ichimoku (HOTSPOT/BEAR/MID/AVOID) is informational only. R = full premium paid.
Q2 2026 EARNINGS CYCLE — WEEK 2
Apr 14 — May 23 · Last scan: Apr 19 17:30 ET
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QUALIFIED
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HC TIER
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SC TIER
Two conviction tiers based on IV runup magnitude. HC (runup ≥50%) and SC (runup 15–50%) are traded at the same flat size — 10% per position, max 5 concurrent (50% cap). Bearish-Ichimoku stocks with runup below 50% are dropped. Tier labels are display-only — both get the same size.
🟢 LIVE V4 SCAN
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📊 Live V4 scanner — IBKR IV + earnings calendar, updates daily 4:30 PM ET. Empty tiers mean no qualifying candidates today; strict gate is working.
V4 strict mechanical: take every qualifying signal at flat 10%, max 5 concurrent = 50% deploy cap. Zero discretion. Two tiers shown (HC/SC) for display conviction but sized identically. IBKR 10-year test split E(R)=+0.20R (forward-safe FIRST entry).
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TRADES TO TAKE
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TOTAL DEPLOY
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BLENDED EXP E(R)
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CYCLE WINDOW
#
TIER
TICKER
EARN DATE
TIMING
TD
RUNUP20
RSI
ICHI
GROUP
SIZE
TIER E(R)
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How to use this tab: every row is an order to place. There is no ranking, no cherry-picking, no "best pick" — this is the whole list, in runup-descending order within each tier. If total deploy exceeds 50% (5 concurrent × 10%), take the highest-runup signals first until the cap is reached. The Tiered Discovery tab contains the same data with gate pills and card detail; this tab is deliberately stripped to an execution list.
Forward journal ingestion is wired to this list — every signal here is what gets paper-journaled each day. See the Forward Journal tab for status.
Live forward-test journal. Tracks every qualifying V4 signal from scanner go-live forward. Compares realized E(R) per tier vs IBKR OOS backtest expectation (+0.20R). Status: LIVE as of Apr 20, 2026. V4 rules active since Apr 21, 2026.
✅ Data sources wired — live_cycle_view.run_as_of() for tiering, Schwab /chains API for option quotes (bid/ask/mid/IV), token synced from remote VM cron
✅ Exit logic — closes every open position on the trading day before earn_date (handles Mon earnings → Fri close)
✅ Daily MTM trajectories — every open position logs a daily mark-to-market snapshot with re-evaluated tier + ichi state
✅ Cron scheduled — daily 4:50 PM ET Mon-Fri (after V3.2 cycle push at 4:45)
First live scan ran 2026-04-20 06:30 ET (0 qualifying — mid-cycle, expected). First real entries will come in the Apr 20+ cycle as earnings move into the 16-25 td window. Trade-level results visible once positions close (2-3 weeks out for first batch).
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TRADES TAKEN
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REALIZED E(R)
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EXP E(R)
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WIN RATE
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CAGR YTD
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vs SPY
By-Tier Performance (V4 backtest OOS — held-out 2021-2025, waiting for live entries)
TIER
RULE
OOS n
OOS E(R)
OOS CI lo
LIVE TRADES
LIVE E(R)
HC
runup ≥ 50%, any ichi
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0
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SC
runup 15–50%, not BEAR
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0
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TOTAL
V4 combined (FIRST entry)
834
+0.195R
+0.12R
0
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V4 uses flat 10% sizing across both tiers. Tier-specific OOS E(R) cells are blank until live journal data accumulates — historical HC/SC split stats (from V3.4 runup-band analysis) are not directly re-expressible under V4’s collapsed SC band. Forward journal will populate per-tier E(R) as entries accumulate.
Cycle History (waiting for first cycle close)
First cycle: Q2 2026. First entries targeted Apr 22–30 once journal wiring completes. First exits mid-May. Cycle results will publish here as positions close.
V4 — pre-earnings long call with forward-safe FIRST-day entry. IBKR 10-year backtest, 2021–2025 held-out test split: n=834, OOS E(R)=+0.195R (95% CI [+0.115, +0.276]), 5/5 positive test years. V4 simplifies V3.4 by collapsing SC+BASE into one SC tier and flattening size to 10%.
The trade
Buy a 30-DTE near-the-money call 16–25 trading days before earnings when IV is already ramping. Exit the day before the announcement. Never hold through the event. R = the full premium paid; worst case is −1R (option expires worthless).
The rule
FILTER
CRITERION
Days to earnings
16 ≤ tdays ≤ 25
IV runup (20d)
≥ 15%
RSI (14)
30 ≤ rsi ≤ 50
Option spread
≤ 3%
Earnings timing
AMC, BMO, DMT, or UNK
Ichimoku
Drop BEAR when runup < 50%. BULL/NEUTRAL always allowed.
Tiers & sizing (V4)
TIER
RULE
SIZE
HC
runup ≥ 50% (any Ichimoku)
10%
SC
runup 15–50%, not BEAR
10%
Flat 10% per position, max 5 concurrent = 50% equity cap. Tiers are display-only — HC and SC get the same size. OOS validation (2021–2025 held-out test): n=834 events, E(R)=+0.195R (CI [+0.115, +0.276]), 5/5 positive years. Forward-safe FIRST-day entry.
Ichimoku as informational (4-group overlay)
Every candidate is also tagged with a 4-group Ichimoku classification. This is displayed in Tiered Discovery and Mechanical Pick for journaling and regime context — it does NOT affect entry or sizing.
A 10-year per-event backtest stacking “skip TREND_EXHAUSTION” on top of V3.4/V4 gates removed −245R of profit (p=0.89). IV Runup and RSI already encode that signal. 4-state Ichimoku tags (HOTSPOT/BEAR/MID/AVOID) are displayed on each card as context for the trader; they do not gate or size trades.
GROUP
9-STATE SET
MEANING
RAW E(R)
CONTRARIAN_WAVE
pINSIDE_cABOVE, pBELOW_cABOVE
Price pulled into/below cloud but Chikou still above
+0.531R
CAPITULATION
pBELOW_cBELOW
Full bearish alignment — often overdone ramp setups
Raw E(R) values are from a 5,156-event per-event backtest before V4 gates are applied. After runup + RSI gates, the gap between groups is no longer statistically significant (Δ = −0.006R, p=0.89). This is why it is informational only.