SESSION CLOCK AND QUALIFICATION TIMELINE

Timeline

08:35 ET ─── MORNING BRIEFING PUBLISHED
             ├─ 4 Candidate Streams Ingested (Leaders, Form 4, Form 8-K, Olyth)
             ├─ Preliminary trigger, invalidation stop, Target 1 and Target 2 published
             └─ 50-minute trader preparation window opens

09:25 ET ─── PRE-BELL CALIBRATION
             ├─ Automated recalibration to late pre-market price action
             ├─ Triggers adjusted if pre-market high shifted
             └─ HARD FREEZE: All morning trade levels locked permanently

09:30 ET ─── CASH MARKET OPEN
             ├─ Regular trading hours commence
             └─ Morning cards enter active tracking (WATCHING -> TRIGGERED or INVALIDATED)

09:45 ET ─── INTRADAY DISCOVERY WINDOW OPENS
             ├─ Opening 15-minute auction noise settles; initial VWAP establishes
             └─ First live-session scan evaluates eligible candidate universe

10:00 ET ─── 15-MINUTE SCAN RECURRENCE (Through 14:00 ET)
 to 14:00 ET ├─ Scans at :00, :15, :30, and :45 of each trading hour
             ├─ Independent qualification: Liquidity, Momentum, Traps, Risk-to-Reward
             ├─ Maximum 5 independently qualified intraday cards per session
             └─ 60-Minute Expiry clock starts individually at card publish timestamp

14:00 ET ─── INTRADAY DISCOVERY CUTOFF (LAST PRINT)
             ├─ Final eligible intraday scan runs
             └─ Discovery engine halts; no new intraday cards published after 14:00 ET

15:55 ET ─── INTRADAY TIMED EXIT CUTOFF
             ├─ Remaining untriggered cards expire automatically
             └─ Open triggered runners execute TIMED_EXIT before 16:00 ET close

16:15 ET ─── POST-MARKET TAPE AUDIT & OUTCOME RECONCILIATION
             ├─ 1-minute execution tape data ingested
             ├─ Fill validation: Trigger, Invalidation Stop, T1, T2, TIMED_EXIT
             └─ Immutable ledger settlement recorded to performance history

The Day Trade Edge operational clock enforces strict temporal boundaries across market liquidity regimes: pre-market price discovery, opening auction volatility, institutional midday flow, and closing settlement.

Decoupling morning preparation from intraday scanning provides advance notice for pre-market setups while preserving the structural integrity of real-time momentum discoveries. All platform timestamps denote Eastern Time (America/New_York) and are permanently locked into card payloads.

Morning brief (8:35 ET) vs pre-bell calibration (9:25 ET) — what publishes, what may change, what freezes

At 8:35 AM ET, the engine releases the Morning Briefing. This release provides 55 minutes of preparation before the cash open at 9:30 AM ET, publishing candidate cards with verified catalyst attribution, SEC Form 4 insider transactions, Form 8-K disclosures, Olyth momentum heat, and preliminary trade levels.

Because pre-market order flow between 8:35 AM ET and 9:25 AM ET can shift candidate ranges, the platform executes an automated Pre-Bell Calibration at 9:25 AM ET (five minutes before the open).

At 9:25 AM ET, calibration locks the payload. No operator or process can alter trade levels or scores after 9:25 AM ET, guaranteeing that post-market audits measure true forward execution.

Intraday discovery window (9:45 ET start, 15-minute rescan, last print)

The Intraday Discovery Engine operates independently from the morning briefing, running its first scan at 9:45 AM ET.

The fifteen-minute delay after the 9:30 AM ET open avoids auction noise, allowing bid-ask spreads to normalize, an initial Opening Range (high/low) to establish, and session Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) to accumulate meaningful volume weight.

From 9:45 AM ET onward, the scanner rescans eligible equities every 15 minutes on the quarter-hour (:00, :15, :30, :45), with the final scan executing at 2:00 PM ET:

After 2:00 PM ET, discovery halts permanently for the session. Setups initiated after 2:00 PM ET lack sufficient regular-market runway before the 4:00 PM ET cash close to resolve through Target 1 and Target 2 without holding into the overnight session.

Why a name can appear after a morning stand-down

A ticker marked STAND_DOWN in the 8:35 AM ET Morning Briefing is not disqualified for the trading day. It remains eligible to qualify during any subsequent 15-minute intraday scan.

This independence stems from the different market environments evaluated by each engine:

Morning stand-downs reflect pre-market conditions only. The intraday engine evaluates real-time regular-session tape data without bias. A candidate that satisfies live liquidity, momentum structure, SEC audits, and 1:2.5 target geometry earns publication on live merits.

Max 5 rule

The Intraday Discovery Engine enforces a strict session ceiling: no more than five independently qualified intraday setups can publish in a single trading session.

Five is a maximum boundary, not a quota. On low-volume or erratic sessions, the engine publishes zero, one, or two cards. Empty scans are treated with the same institutional rigor as high-scoring setups.

This cap protects capital from broad market correlation. During high-momentum sessions, dozens of equities can cross breakout thresholds at once. The five-card limit forces the scoring model to isolate only top-tier volume velocity and catalyst provenance.

60-minute untriggered expiry (clock start, ET, ledger effect)

Every Intraday Edge Card enforces an expiration deadline: an untriggered entry expires exactly 60 minutes after publication.

The 60-minute clock initiates at the card's publication timestamp (scanTimestamp in Eastern Time). If price does not cross the Trigger Price within 60 minutes, the card transitions to EXPIRED.

The 60-minute expiry eliminates stale setups. Intraday momentum catalysts decay rapidly. If price fails to break through the trigger within one hour, volatility has compressed and the statistical edge has degraded.

Session types — morning and intraday are separate engines

Day Trade Edge operates two architecturally separate qualification pipelines. The structural parameters of each engine reflect their operational scope:

Separate engines ensure intraday setups reflect real-time order flow rather than pre-market assumptions. Both engines share the identical risk-to-reward floor (minimum 1:2.5 planned R to Target 1) and feed the same post-market tape audit ledger.

Frozen vs Changeable Fields

Published cards transition through immutable states. To prevent curve-fitting or survivorship bias, fields are strictly categorized:

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