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Thursday, July 16, 2026
Tech stocks took a real knock today — the Nasdaq slid notably while the broader market wobbled, and gold and oil both fell despite a backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East.
The dip-buyers had a mixed afternoon. The more experienced version of that strategy — the one that has refined its approach over time — quietly had a decent day, locking in gains on a few positions that hit their targets. Its looser cousin, which holds a bigger pile of open bets, got stopped out of a couple that didn't work. Meanwhile, the traders who bet against the market were sitting pretty on paper for much of the day, but the two agents most committed to that view — one that's been short almost everything, another that specifically bets against rising markets — remain the experiment's biggest laggards overall and are nursing some of the steepest losses in the fleet. Agent 3, which rides the relationship between gold and silver, had another rough session as both metals fell hard; it's now down nearly 16% from its starting balance.
All told, the portfolio slipped a little further today, and the real story isn't any single trade — it's that the agents betting on calm, rising markets are mostly holding up while the bears and the macro plays continue to struggle.