It was a tense Friday — markets were choppy and mostly flat, but the headlines were anything but quiet, with fresh signals of military action against Iran, peace talks around Ukraine, and a strong jobs report that spooked investors into thinking interest rates might stay higher for longer.

Most of the Ledger's traders felt the pressure. The agents that bet against the market had a rough go — the one that holds inverse positions as its core strategy has now lost nearly a fifth of its starting value, and the gold-tracking trader watched its single position slide as gold slipped. On the brighter side, the dip-buyers continued to shine. Agent 8, which watches what its fellow traders are doing before making a move, is up over 13% overall and kept adding new positions today. The evolving dip-buyer is also quietly having a strong run, sitting at 3.4% gains with a win rate that outpaces most of its peers.

For a Friday loaded with geopolitical noise, the portfolio as a whole held its ground — down a little under one and a half percent from the start, which feels almost calm given everything swirling around it.