The Trading Post | 01.08.26

Good morning,

AI megacaps are quietly holding the market together, defense stocks are sprinting on budget chatter, oil is trying to find its footing, gold is sniffing a breakout, clean energy is sneaking into leadership, and traders are staring down jobs data and a Supreme Court tariff ruling…classic. Let’s jump in.

Stop trading alone…discover the 3 secrets that can help you scale your trading success and finally find consistency in 2026.

Let’s jump in.

Pre-Market Performance

As of 01.07.26 market close.

Market News

• Indexes stall, AI holds up the tape – Dow and S&P slipped from record highs while Nasdaq stayed green as Alphabet and Nvidia outperformed. Traders are rotating away from index chasing toward single-name relative strength ahead of Friday’s jobs report. CNBC

• Alphabet briefly dethrones Apple – GOOG jumped ~2% and momentarily passed AAPL in market cap as optimism builds around Gemini and TPU demand. Yahoo Finance

• Defense stocks rip on $1.5T budget talk – Northrop, RTX, and peers caught momentum bids after reports Trump wants to boost defense spending materially. Reuters

• Oil stabilizes, gold pushes higher – Crude is finding a floor after Venezuela volatility, while gold grinds up on Fed-cut bets and geopolitical stress. AP News, Yahoo

• Clean energy quietly leads – Clean-energy indexes are outperforming oil & gas as AI-driven power and grid demand themes build. Bloomberg

• Tariff ruling = left-tail risk – Supreme Court weighs Trump’s emergency tariff powers with a decision possible as soon as Friday. Industrials, autos, exporters, and semis are in the crosshairs. Reuters

A Message From Wealth Builders HQ

Strategies That Scale: FREE Training with Rob Roy 

Most traders struggle with the same pattern: they get close to consistent profits, then something derails their progress. Sound familiar? 

Join Rob Roy—25+ year trading veteran and founder of Wealth Builders HQ—for a free training that reveals three powerful secrets to breaking through trading inconsistency. 

What You'll Discover: 

The 100-Hour Rule – You don't need 10,000 hours to master trading. Rob breaks down how 100 hours of focused, deliberate practice can transform you from "I have no idea what I'm doing" to "I can execute a proven system with confidence." Just 1-2 hours per day puts you there in weeks, not years. 

The Power of Community – Trading doesn't have to be a solo journey. Discover how connecting with the right tribe gives you accountability, support, and the confidence to trade smarter. 

The Force Multiplier Effect – You already have trading knowledge. Rob shows you how to use what you know as a force multiplier to spot better opportunities and fix what's been holding you back. 

This isn't theory—it's the same roadmap Rob has used to teach thousands of traders over two decades. His insights have been featured on financial TV and radio, and his students range from brand-new traders to market veterans. 

By the end of this training, you'll have a clear path to building trading consistency that could transform your long-term goals. No hype, no impossible promises—just practical strategies that work. 

Register here and make 2026 your breakthrough trading year. 

Earnings We’re Watching

• Acuity Brands, Inc. (AYI) - Thursday (BMO) 

• Commercial Metals Company (CMC) - Thursday (BMO) 

• RPM International Inc. (RPM) - Thursday (BMO) 

• TD SYNNEX (SNX) - Thursday (BMO) 

Trade Ideas

Want to learn how we trade these? Learn the setup we call the “High Volatility Switchback” trade.

Get these ideas delivered to your inbox daily with Trade With Rob. It’s 100% free. Sign up here.

Daily Moment of Zen

Why It Matters:

This quote gets misused more than a 200-day moving average on a meme stock. Buffett wasn’t talking about blind loyalty or diamond hands through bad entries. He was talking about owning quality when the thesis stays intact—not marrying garbage because you’re emotionally attached to your cost basis.

For traders, the lesson isn’t “never sell.” It’s know what game you’re playing. Long-term investors get paid for patience and fundamentals. Traders get paid for discipline, risk management, and knowing when the trade is over. Confusing those two is how short-term trades turn into long-term investments… accidentally.

If you’re day trading like a value investor, you’ll bleed slowly.
If you’re investing like a day trader, you’ll bleed quickly.

The edge comes from matching your timeframe to your thesis—and having the humility to admit when neither deserves “forever.”