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TradFi Daily Read beta

decision bar Friday 2026-08-21 · built from the published tradfi-breakout payload · not investment advice

The venue trades around the clock; the instruments under these perps do not. The last completed trading bar is Friday 2026-08-21, and that is the board below — not today's.
No position — nothing clears every check

Candidate status, and the measurement is not flattering. Over the venue's whole session history the rule returns -1.8% on 7 trades while simply holding the eligible universe returns +5.7%. Shuffle the names and keep everything else (the same days, the same sizes) and 18 of 200 random draws do better. Split the rule in two and the blame lands on the gate: the gate alone with no selection returns -9.5%, so timing subtracted while name selection clawed back +7.7 pp on top of it. The sample is months, not years: 210 session bars on the oldest market, 116 on the median one. That is a statement about the sample as much as about the rule, and both belong here.

What is closest

40 markets admitted of 101 trading on the venue · 0 clear every check

Ranked by distance to its own high over the window each market actually has. A market has to be near that high, moving on more volume than usual, in a trend that is measurable, and stronger than the universe it sits in. The context column says which of those it failed first.

#?market?context?30d?% of high?funding?
1COPPER commodityvolume too thin+6.2%97.1%+5.5%
2EUR FXweaker than the universe+2.4%96.7%+3.4%
3JPY FXvolume too thin-1.8%96.7%+0.0%
4EWJ stocksvolume too thin+0.4%96.4%+5.5%
5XYZ100 index/ETFvolume too thin-1.6%95.3%+5.5%
6MSFT stocksvolume too thin+25.5%92.8%+5.5%
7AMZN stocksvolume too thin+5.7%90.4%+5.5%
8PLTR stocksvolume too thin+42.0%90.4%-9.7%
9AAPL stocksnot near its high-1.6%89.9%+5.5%
10NVDA stocksnot near its high+2.2%89.4%+5.5%
11TSM stocksnot near its high-3.8%87.6%+15.3%
12GOOGL stocksnot near its high-3.4%84.4%+5.5%
13RIVN stocksnot near its high-3.1%83.9%+12.9%
14GOLD commoditynot near its high+12.0%82.4%+23.6%
15AMD stocksnot near its high-15.7%80.8%+5.5%
16EWY stocksnot near its high-2.8%80.8%+5.5%
17BRENTOIL commoditynot near its high+21.4%78.4%-11.7%
18HOOD stocksnot near its high-2.7%77.3%+5.5%
19PALLADIUM commoditynot near its high+5.3%77.0%+5.5%
20MU stocksnot near its high-2.0%76.8%+6.4%
21SMSN stocksnot near its high+1.6%75.5%-1026.8%
22META stocksnot near its high-17.3%74.3%+5.5%
23CL commoditynot near its high+21.2%73.4%+5.5%
24TSLA stocksnot near its high-10.8%72.8%+5.5%
25NFLX stocksnot near its high+8.4%72.1%+5.5%
26SNDK stocksnot near its high-17.5%67.1%+27.5%
27COIN stocksnot near its high+18.5%66.6%+27.8%
28PLATINUM commoditynot near its high+15.3%66.6%+5.5%
29BABA stocksnot near its high+5.8%65.8%+6.9%
30URNM stocksnot near its high+9.0%65.7%+42.4%
31CRCL stocksnot near its high+33.0%63.3%+5.5%
32SKHX stocksnot near its high-15.4%63.2%-705.6%
33CRWV stocksnot near its high-1.4%63.1%-21.1%
34INTC stocksnot near its high-18.1%62.1%+5.5%
35MSTR stocksnot near its high+28.0%61.3%+5.5%
36NATGAS commoditynot near its high-4.2%61.1%+5.5%
37USAR stocksnot near its high+3.8%58.9%+5.5%
38ORCL stocksnot near its high+4.1%58.6%+5.5%
39SILVER commoditynot near its high+15.4%56.7%+5.5%
40HYUNDAI stocksnot near its high-3.5%55.7%-359.4%
clears every check the gate is open and nothing vetoes itblocked the first check it fails, in rule order30d price change over 30 session bars% of high last close against its own highest close

Read it as: the board is the shortlist, not the position. A market only becomes one when the gate is open and it clears every check in the rule.

How this was built

The method sits under the answer on purpose: the verdict first, then the machinery that produced it, for anyone checking the work.

The research path

Venue candlesSession barsRegime gateBreakoutChecksTradFi Daily Read

Data and hypothesis → candidate → measurement → indicator. This one is at the measurement step and stays there: the sample is months, so a Lab verdict here is a reason to watch it live, never a result.

Timeframe and execution

Decision timeframe: one session bar. The instruments under these perps are shut at the weekend, so a Saturday is not a quiet day, it is an absent one — the decision reads the last completed trading bar and the page says which. Trigger at the close, fill at the next session open. Up to six parallel slots. A position leaves on its own 10% trailing stop, a 30-bar time stop or the gate shutting — never on a trigger flip. Long only, no leverage.
1 · WHENRegime

Breadth inside this universe opens or shuts risk: is there any point looking for a long.

2 · WHATBreakout · Relative strength

Picks the markets nearest their own high with volume and a measurable trend.

3 · ENTRY QUALITYToxicity · Carry · Executability

Checks the entry is not late, not crowded, and can be made at the price shown.

4 · EXIT QUALITYTrailing 10% · 30-bar stop · Gate shut

A position leaves on its own stop, its time limit or the gate, never on a trigger flip.

Regime

The gate is breadth measured inside this universe, not borrowed from crypto: how many of the 40 markets with enough history trade above their 50-day average. Below the line the book stands aside rather than shorting. There is no short side in this rule.

Breakout and the checks

Each one can only remove a candidate; none of them can add one.

What is not here

The measurement above is the whole of it: no multi-regime record, no out-of-sample window, no equity curve worth drawing from seven trades. Nothing here has been re-fitted to make it look better. The thresholds are the crypto radar's, and the one parameter that moved is how much history a market needs before it is admitted, recomputed in session bars rather than tuned against the returns table. The oracle behind these prices is checked against an independent source on 52 of 116 markets, 3 against on-chain twins and 49 equities against tokenised shares; the rest is unverified. Funding settles hourly here and is annualised x24x365, which is why this is a separate product from anything on the crypto side.

the tradfi tab of the screener · method and evidence · the crypto Daily Read

Generated from the published TradFi Breakout product · as of 2026-08-21

This is context, not advice. The rule is a candidate measured on months, not years, and the measurement is above. Sources: method and evidence · the tradfi tab.

Daily Read is published for information only. It is not, and must not be read as, investment or financial advice.