Tech stocks had a rough day — the Nasdaq dropped about 1.4% — after a hotter-than-expected inflation reading rattled investors and Alphabet's weak earnings pulled some big names lower.

The dip-buyers had a mixed afternoon. The two more sophisticated versions of that strategy — the ones that have adapted their rules over time or watch what other traders are doing — both booked tidy wins, hitting their targets on a handful of positions and continuing to sit comfortably above where they started. Their frozen counterpart, which can't adjust its approach, took some painful stops on Alphabet, a reminder that holding through bad earnings without any ability to adapt carries real risk. Agent 1, the trader locked into an unchanging set of rules with a very small number of big bets, had another hard day, taking a large loss on a security stop — it remains the portfolio's worst-performing account. On the brighter side, the pairs trader quietly closed a nice win on a Mastercard/Visa spread.

All told, the portfolio slipped about half a percent — a modest, orderly decline on a day when the news was genuinely noisy.