Reading size changes around earnings calls
How earnings weeks distort journal honesty — and a way to tag adds that arrived after a peer shock rather than after your level.
Earnings weeks fill journals with confident language. “Add on strength.” “Trim into weakness.” In review, those phrases often hide a different clock: the add happened after a peer printed, not after your level held.
Tag the catalyst noun
When you change size during earnings season, name the catalyst in five words or fewer: “own print,” “peer miss,” “sector ETF drop,” “no catalyst — plan.” That last option matters. If you cannot name a catalyst, write that too.
Why reviewers care
In Event-Driven Journal Reviews we frequently find clusters of adds tagged “own print” that actually sat next to a peer headline by a few minutes. Traders are not lying; memory collapses sequence. The tag, written in the moment, preserves sequence.
A mild limit
Do not turn the journal into a newswire archive. One catalyst noun per size change is enough. The goal is clarity for later analysis, not a second job as a news clerk.