The Trading Post | 04.28.26

April 28, 2026

Good morning,

Iran-war diplomacy is stuck in the mud, oil and geopolitics are keeping macro risk elevated, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are hovering near record highs while the Dow drags its feet, a heavy earnings docket puts KO, GM, HOOD, SBUX, UPS and friends in play, central-bank fog is giving traders another reason to overpay for protection, and Qualcomm ripped on OpenAI-chip news while Apple and Adobe reminded everyone that mega-cap tech is not one big happy family. Classic tape: expensive, jumpy, and one headline away from pretending it had a plan.

Let’s jump in.

Yesterday’s Post-Market Performance

As of 04.27.26 market close.

Market News

  • Geopolitics keeps the volatility pilot light on: The Trump administration signaled skepticism toward Iran’s latest proposal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, keeping oil, defense, energy, and volatility hedges firmly in the “don’t ignore me” pile. Youtube

  • Records keep getting records: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite pushed to fresh highs yesterday while the Dow lagged, giving traders a clean read on the current tape: growth still has the mic, value is somewhere backstage checking its pulse. CNBC

  • Earnings landmines are everywhere: Coca-Cola, GM, Robinhood, Starbucks, UPS and others report today, setting up a catalyst-heavy session where gaps, IV crush, and post-earnings reversals can all show up before your second coffee. Yahoo Finance

  • Rate-decision fog rolls in: Traders are stepping into a week packed with central-bank risk and policy uncertainty, which means options demand may stay firm and oversized directional bets may get treated like piñatas. Business Insider

  • Qualcomm gets the AI-chip halo: Qualcomm surged on OpenAI-related AI-chip news, while Apple dipped on competition concerns and Adobe slid after a downgrade — a nice little reminder that “AI” is not a sector, it’s a sorting machine with a caffeine problem. Youtube

Earnings We’re Watching

  • BP p.l.c. (BP) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Centene Corporation (CNC) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Coca-Cola Company (KO) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • General Motors Corp. (GM) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • S&P Global (SPGI) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Sherwin-Williams Co. (SHW) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) - Tuesday (BMO) 

  • Booking Holdings Inc. (BKNG) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (CZR) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • Visa Inc (V) - Tuesday (AMC) 

  • WM (WM) - Tuesday (AMC) 

Trade Ideas

Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET), Apollo Global Management, LLC (APO), American Express Company (AXP), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA)

Baidu, Inc. (BIDU), Cameco Corporation (CCJ), Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS),
CoreWeave, Inc. - Class A Comm (CRWV)

Expeditors International Of Washngtn Inc (EXPD), Jacobs Engineering Group Inc (J), Linde plc - Ordinary Shares (LIN), Lowe’s Companies, Inc (LOW)

GraniteShares 1.5x Long NVDA (NVDL), Paytocity Holding Corporation (PCTY), Rocket Lab USA Inc (RXLB), SBA Communications Corporation (SBAC)

Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SCCO), Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO), Arista Networks Inc (ANET), Apollo Global Management, LLC (APO)

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

❝

The stock market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.

Warren Buffett

Why It Matters:

This is one of those quotes that sounds like it was carved into a mahogany desk by a very wealthy man who hasn’t checked his P&L in 14 years.

And annoyingly, it’s true.

The market has a very efficient wealth-transfer mechanism: it takes money from traders who need action and hands it to traders who can wait for quality. Not forever. Not blindly. Just long enough to avoid turning every five-minute candle into a personal emergency.

Active traders don’t lose because they trade. They lose because they confuse movement with opportunity. A stock wiggles, a candle flashes green, volume twitches, and suddenly they’re in a position with the strategic depth of a raccoon crossing a highway.

Patience is not passivity. It’s selectivity. It’s waiting for the setup to actually set up. It’s letting the first emotional move burn itself out. It’s refusing to chase a gap just because everyone else is sprinting toward the same cliff wearing matching momentum helmets.

The patient trader still acts. They just act when the odds are stacked, the risk is defined, and the trade has more structure than “I felt something.”

That’s the punchline: the market rewards action, but only the right action. Everything else is just commission cosplay with a candlestick chart.

Be active in preparation. Be patient in execution. The market has enough donors already.