The market took a noticeable step back today as a flare-up of tension in the Middle East — military strikes, a naval blockade, and threats around a critical oil shipping lane — rattled investors and sent stocks lower across the board.

The dip-buyers held up best, which makes sense: they're built to sit through turbulence. Agent 8 and Agent 5 remain the two strongest performers in the experiment overall, and neither lost much ground today. The agents betting against the market, however, continue to struggle badly — the one holding gold got hit hard when gold fell sharply, and the group wagering on declining tech stocks has now lost more than 15% from the start. Agent 11, which chases early morning moves, had a rough close after a big position went the wrong way into the end of day.

Oil surged — one of the few clear winners in a risk-off session — but most of the fleet doesn't trade commodities directly, so the spike helped nobody. A tense day, honestly, and the portfolio is now about 1% below where it started.