The market sent mixed signals today — old-economy stocks like industrials and blue chips nudged higher, while tech took a meaningful hit, and oil surged on a serious flare-up of tensions in the Middle East.

The traders who wait for stocks to dip and then buy them continued to be the bright spots. The peer-aware version of that strategy had another solid day, locking in gains on an airline and a couple of financial stocks, and it remains the portfolio's strongest performer overall. Its close cousin, the evolving dip-buyer, also hit a couple of targets. On the other side, the day trader had a rough afternoon — a string of positions got cut loose near the close, and one in particular (a construction-related stock) stung. The gold strategy is quietly nursing a significant loss as gold climbed today but the position was entered at much higher levels. The inverse rotator — which bets against rising markets — churned through dozens of trades and remains deeply in the red for the experiment overall.

The oil surge and Middle East escalation were the day's real backdrop, but for now the portfolio just drifted a little lower, and most of the action felt more like noise than signal.