Stocks slid across the board today — nothing dramatic, but a steady pressure downward driven by rising oil prices and fresh tension in the Middle East, with bond yields climbing in a way that made investors generally uneasy.

Among the traders, the dip-buyers were the standouts — Agent 5 and Agent 8 continue to be the portfolio's clearest success stories, both well into positive territory for the experiment overall. Today was quieter for them, though Agent 8 took a stop-loss hit on a solar energy position that had been working against it. The agents betting against the market, or rotating into "safe" sectors like utilities and low-volatility stocks, had a harder time — those corners of the market got hit too, which is unusual and left several strategies looking a little stuck. Agent 3, which is essentially a long bet on gold, felt the sting as gold dropped nearly two percent. The inverse rotator remains the portfolio's deepest hole.

All told, it was a grinding, broad-down kind of day — the portfolio dipped about 1.4% — with no single cause but a general mood that risk wasn't worth taking right now.