The Trading Post | 01.14.26

Good morning,

Bank earnings take center stage, PPI and retail sales loom at 8:30am ET, futures drift just off record highs, volatility is quietly creeping higher, metals are doing their best impression of a meme stock, growth names are splitting into heroes and zeros, policy risk is back on financials, and options are pricing a contained-but-tradable SPX range.

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 01.13.26 market close.

Market News

• Banks + Data = Two‑Stage Vol Day: Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo report before the bell, right ahead of PPI and retail sales. Expect an initial volatility burst at 8:30am ET, followed by a second wave as the cash market digests earnings. Fading early overreactions into prior day levels beats chasing the first five‑minute candle. CNBC

• Financials as the Tell: Pre‑market reactions in C, BAC, and WFC will set the tone for XLF, KBE, and KRE. Strong prints with tame inflation favors long XLF / short SPY logic. Soft numbers or hot PPI tilts the playbook toward short XLF or downside put spreads. CNBC

• Volatility Is No Longer Free: Realized vol is still modest, but event risk is stacked. Short‑dated straddles only work if you’re actively gamma‑scalping. Directional traders are better served with defined‑risk call and put spreads until the data dust settles. Saxo

• Metals Go Full Send: Gold is flirting with record highs near the mid‑$4,600s, while silver just blasted through $90 for the first time ever. Momentum is extended but intact — first pullbacks into prior breakout zones are buyable, parabolas are not. CNBC

• Miners Lag, Then Launch: Early vertical metals moves usually leave miners behind. Watch for relative‑strength breakouts on volume in GDX, GDXJ, SIL, and SILJ. Names failing to confirm spot strength become prime short candidates on any turn. Bloomberg

• Growth Tape = Dispersion City: Intel ripped on AI server optimism, Roblox caught a monster bid, and crypto‑linked equities are riding ETF inflows, while large‑cap software laggards like Salesforce and Atlassian continue to struggle. Yahoo Finance

• Crypto Equities as Beta Tools: Bitcoin and Ethereum dips remain shallow thanks to ETF inflows. COIN, MSTR, miners, and infrastructure names remain leveraged expressions of intraday crypto direction.
  Sources: Reuters, CNBC

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Earnings We’re Watching

• Bank of America Corp. (BAC) - Wednesday (BMO) 

• Citigroup Inc. (C) - Wednesday (BMO) 

• Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) - Wednesday (BMO) 

Trade Ideas

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

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Daily Moment of Zen

Why It Matters:

This is the part of trading nobody puts on Instagram. Losses aren’t the problem — denial is. A planned loss is just rent paid to stay in the game. An unplanned one, held out of ego or hope, compounds into something far more expensive than money.

Good traders take losses quickly and sleep fine. Bad traders argue with price, negotiate with charts, and wake up holding positions they no longer recognize. The market doesn’t care about your thesis, your feelings, or how close you were. It only rewards discipline.

If a trade is wrong, exit it. Not later. Not after one more candle. Now. Protecting capital protects confidence — and confidence is the real edge.

Take the loss. Keep the soul. Live to trade the next setup.