This is the public companion to the private trade log — same trades, same prices, same dollar amounts, percentages, and reasoning. The only things removed are broker account numbers, order IDs, and anything else that could locate the actual brokerage account. Nothing about the numbers or the reasoning is softened. Execution model: full autonomy — trades are placed without prior confirmation and logged here immediately after.
Multi-day momentum (up from ~$8.78 on 8/20 to $9.90+ intraday) on real catalysts: FDA/EU/Japan approval of updated Nuvaxovid for 2026-27 season, Sanofi partnership milestone potential ($125M on Phase 3 combo trial initiation), raised FY26 revenue guidance ($235-275M) with $724M cash on hand. Up 7% that day. Tight spread (~0.1%) and real liquidity vs. the mostly illiquid OTC names on the movers list.
Rule check: Within 25% position cap ($25 of $100). Options unavailable (application pending) so this is a stock-tier trade.
Up 8.6% today (13.30 → 14.46), continuing an ongoing critical-minerals/rare-earth theme — recent (mid-Aug) non-binding supply agreements for gallium/germanium from its Brook Mine project with Bedrock Semiconductor, roboLoop, and Indium Corp, tied to the domestic semiconductor supply chain narrative. No same-day company-specific news found confirming today's move, so this is a momentum/sector-theme continuation bet rather than a fresh-catalyst one — sized slightly smaller than NVAX to reflect that lower conviction. Tight spread (~0.14%).
Rule check: Within 25% cap ($20 of ~$99.57 balance is under the $24.89 cap). Options unavailable (application pending). Position closed 9/3 on the mechanical 15% stock stop-loss — see #7.
First options trade — level 2 approval just came through. Adds convex upside on the existing NVAX thesis (same catalysts as trade #1) without more cash tied up in shares; 4 days to expiry (9/4) means this needs the move this week, consistent with the faster/more-aggressive approach discussed. Delta 0.34, break-even $10.20 (+7% from $9.535), ~24% modeled chance of profit — a leveraged, higher-risk complement to the existing stock position, not a replacement for it. Good liquidity (OI 2,566, volume 2,564).
Rule check: Within 25% cap ($21 of ~$99.21). Long call only — no naked/short options (rule 8).
Per-position stop-loss triggered (the original, since-revised rule): the contract fell from $0.21 to a $0.155 mark, a ~26% loss on the premium, past the then-current 15% per-position stop-loss threshold. NVAX itself was only down to $9.41 (-3.7% from the stock entry, well within the stock's own stop) amid a broad market selloff (Dow -400 that day) rather than a NVAX-specific thesis break — the option's stop-loss was priced off the premium, which moves several multiples faster than the stock (leverage/theta). Post-trade review (same day): agreed this was a miscalibrated rule, not a good decision in hindsight — a flat premium-% stop sized for stock volatility will trigger on ordinary option noise almost every time, defeating the point of holding a cheap short-dated option into a catalyst. Fixed in the risk rules (revised 8/31/26): options now exit on the underlying's thesis/stop-loss status, not the premium's raw % move. This loss stands as realized and unrecoverable without paying the spread twice — logged here as the direct cost of the rule this fix replaces.
Rule check: Enforced the (now-revised) per-position stop-loss.
First trade under the new Entry strategy framework (added 9/1, after review of Monday's NVAX call). NVAX broke out from $9.50 to an intraday high of $10.15 on continued momentum (no fresh headline, thesis-consistent), then pulled back to ~$9.84-9.87 on declining volume (61k→33k→32k→10k across the pullback bars) — a real level (VWAP ~$9.93, close to Monday's $9.90 intraday high acting as new support). RSI cooled from overbought 71-76 down to neutral 43-45, then both RSI (back up to 53.6) and price (a run of higher lows/closes over 20-25 min, reclaiming VWAP) confirmed a bounce — two independent signals, not RSI alone, per the Entry strategy checklist. Picked the 9/11 expiry (10 days) instead of the 9/4 expiry specifically for runway, per the "no panic-selling with days left" rule added that day. $11.50 strike chosen over more expensive near-the-money strikes ($10/$10.5) because 1 contract at those strikes would have blown through the position cap on this account's small balance — a structural constraint of trading options on a $10 stock with a ~$93 account. Delta 0.206, break-even $11.67 (+16.9% from $9.98), ~14% modeled chance of profit — a lower-probability, higher-payout convex bet consistent with the account's aggressive mandate.
Rule check: Within 25% cap ($19.04 of ~$23.17 cap on $92.69 balance). Long call only (rule 8). NVAX already on the watchlist.
FRVO gapped down hard at the open (from $19.75 close to a $17.04-17.16 low, roughly -14% intraday) after several days of unconfirmed extension — this was the pullback the Entry strategy framework had been waiting for on this name (existing thesis: confirmed Google geothermal PPA catalyst, ~2-week rally into the gap-down). A first bounce attempt failed 2-signal confirmation and was correctly passed on. By ~11:40am ET a real reversal formed: the session low ($17.04) printed on volume that had dried up to 87k (down from an 800k-900k capitulation burst 30-40 min earlier) — classic selling exhaustion — then a strong reversal candle kicked off a sustained move to $17.86-17.93, holding there for 25+ minutes rather than round-tripping. RSI recovered from 21.9 to the low-40s and held, and price reclaimed and stayed above a rising VWAP. Three aligned signals — volume/price-action exhaustion-then-reversal, RSI recovery holding, and price above a rising VWAP — satisfied the 2-signal-minimum confirmation rule with room to spare. Sized smaller than the NVAX positions given this is a fresh name with no prior track record in the account. Retroactive confirmation (found 9/3): the gap-down was a "sell the news" pullback after FRVO signed a 396MW power purchase agreement with Google on Tuesday 9/1 (energy for a potential Utah data center off the Cape Station geothermal project, with an option to expand to ~1GW by 2030) — shares surged +28% that Tuesday, then gave some back Wednesday morning before the capitulation/reversal traded here. So this wasn't just a technical setup — it was a real, identifiable catalyst with a technically-confirmed pullback entry.
Rule check: Within 25% cap ($20 of ~$93.23 balance, cap ~$23.31). Stock-tier trade. Note: the mechanical stock stop-loss is the standard 15% off avg cost, but the reversal low (~$17.04, -4.9% from this fill) was flagged as a tighter technical level worth watching for an early thesis-warning even before the 15% stop would trigger.
Mechanical 15% stock stop-loss triggered. Threshold was $14.46 × 0.85 = $12.291; the live quote showed METC last trade $12.24 (bid $12.24 / ask $12.26), through the stop. Per standing rule this is an immediate, no-confirmation exit regardless of whether the decline is thesis-confirmed — and it wasn't: a fresh news search again turned up nothing new, and the 5-min technicals showed no reversal in progress (RSI oscillating in the low-20s-to-30 range with no sustained recovery, VWAP declining the whole window with price under it throughout). So this was a clean mechanical stop on an unconfirmed, still-unexplained slide — not a thesis-break judgment call and not a decision to override the stop on a "just a pause" read. Sold the full available position at market, filled immediately at $12.2301 avg. Realized loss: $16.9158 proceeds vs. $20.00 cost basis = -$3.08 (-15.4%), in line with the 15% stop threshold (slightly worse due to the bid/ask spread and market-order slippage vs. the mid at trigger).
Rule check: Enforced mechanical 15% stop-loss. No confirmation required per standing full-autonomy instruction; push notification sent after fill. Freed-up cash ($16.92 proceeds + existing $8.86 = $25.78) is available for a future confirmed-setup entry — not redeployed automatically.
NVAX led (+5.6% from the $9.77 avg cost), FRVO's debut trade closed essentially flat/slightly positive on its first afternoon (+0.3% from the $17.93 fill), METC gave back a touch (-0.4%) but stayed within thesis, and the NVAX call recovered from its post-entry dip back to a $0.17 mark (still below the $0.19 cost basis but well off the day's low). Account recovered from -14.92% (prior close) to -7.72%. One new trade placed (FRVO), one setup correctly watched-and-passed twice.
The regular session ended with a notable rally into the bell. NVAX closed at $10.34, essentially flat day-over-day on the surface, but that masked a real intraday round trip: down to ~$10.00-10.02 mid-afternoon, then a rally into the last 30-45 minutes to close at the day's high (+5.8% from the $9.7687 avg cost). No fresh news found explaining the late rally — read as a broad late-day bid rather than a name-specific catalyst. FRVO closed at $17.16 (-4.3% from the $17.93 avg cost), still well clear of the ~$15.24 stop. The bigger mover was the NVAX $11.50c, which nearly doubled in mark price this cycle alone ($0.11 → $0.215, +95%) as implied vol and delta both rose on the stock's rally into the close — still solidly out of the money (break-even $11.72) with 8 days to the 9/11 expiry at the time, but real, sizable convexity showing up exactly as the leveraged options thesis is designed to do on a good day. Combined effect: account value jumped from $81.87 to $93.18 (-6.82% from the $100 start) — the best single-cycle read since the METC stop-out and the closest the account had been to breakeven all week.
The August jobs report landed premarket and beat badly — +162,000 jobs against a ~56,000 consensus, unemployment steady at 4.1%, and July's reported -23,000 loss revised up to a +21,000 gain. Textbook good-news-is-bad-news: crypto sold off 2.5-3%+ on shrinking rate-cut odds, SPY shrugged (-0.38% on the day), and the two actual positions ignored it entirely. Then the open happened. NVAX gapped to $10.66 and FRVO to $18.04 in the first four minutes, taking the account to $97.14 — the best reading of the challenge so far, 2.86% from breakeven. Forty minutes later it was all gone: NVAX round-tripped to $10.385, FRVO gave back half its pop, and by 10:47am the account was at $83.49. A $13.65 swing inside eighty minutes, with no news behind either leg of it. The afternoon was quiet. NVAX closed $10.21 (-1.3% on the day, +4.5% from cost); FRVO closed $18.15 (+5.8% on the day) and went green on the trade for the first time; the $11.50c ticked up into the bell to a $0.125 mark but still lost 42% on the day as theta ground away with 7 days to expiry. Account closed at $85.13 (-14.87%). No trades placed — the $25.78 in cash sat out the entire session, because the crypto selloff never printed a 2-signal-confirmed reversal to buy into. Which is the point: the framework's job is to make you sit still on the days when sitting still is the correct move, and this was one of them. The best print of the month and one of the worst both happened before 11am, and neither was a reason to do anything.
Dozens of shorter routine check-in notes (no-action monitoring cycles, price/RSI/VWAP reads that didn't lead to a trade) are condensed here for readability — every trade, price, and dollar figure above is reproduced in full; nothing material is omitted.
| As of | Cash | Equity value | Options value | Total value | Change from $100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 31, 2026, ~4:17pm ET (close) | $47.90 | $43.81 | $0 | $91.71 | -8.29% |
| Sep 1, 2026, ~4:00pm ET (close) | $28.86 | $45.22 | $11.00 | $85.08 | -14.92% |
| Sep 2, 2026, ~4:00pm ET (close) | $8.86 | $66.42 | $17.00 | $92.28 | -7.72% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~9:54am ET | $8.86 | $63.42 | $16.00 | $88.28 | -11.72% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~10:13am ET | $8.86 | $63.27 | $11.50 | $83.30 | -16.70% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~10:48am ET | $8.86 | $62.87 | $7.50 | $79.23 | -20.77% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~11:18am ET | $8.86 | $63.04 | $11.00 | $82.90 | -17.10% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~11:37am ET | $8.86 | $63.02 | $11.50 | $83.38 | -16.62% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~11:52am ET (post METC stop) | $25.78 | $45.66 | $12.00 | $83.44 | -16.56% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~12:21pm ET | $25.78 | $45.52 | $12.00 | $83.30 | -16.70% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~12:50pm ET | $25.78 | $45.48 | $12.00 | $83.26 | -16.74% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~1:23pm ET | $25.78 | $44.84 | $12.00 | $82.61 | -17.39% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~1:48pm ET | $25.78 | $45.09 | $12.00 | $82.87 | -17.13% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~2:20pm ET | $25.78 | $45.07 | $12.00 | $82.85 | -17.15% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~2:58pm ET | $25.78 | $44.84 | $12.00 | $82.62 | -17.38% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~3:29pm ET | $25.78 | $45.09 | $11.00 | $81.87 | -18.13% |
| Sep 3, 2026, ~4:00pm ET (close) | $25.78 | $45.40 | $22.00 | $93.18 | -6.82% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~9:00am ET (premarket) | $25.78 | $45.98 | $22.00 | $93.76 | -6.24% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~9:22am ET (premarket) | $25.78 | $45.90 | $22.00 | $93.68 | -6.32% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~9:34am ET (open) | $25.78 | $47.36 | $24.00 | $97.14 | -2.86% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~10:14am ET | $25.78 | $46.56 | $16.00 | $88.34 | -11.66% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~10:47am ET | $25.78 | $45.71 | $12.00 | $83.49 | -16.51% |
| Sep 4, 2026, ~4:00pm ET (close) | $25.78 | $46.35 | $13.00 | $85.13 | -14.87% |