The Workshop · The Trade Desk · one trade at a time · 10 of 11
Every trade the rules took in a calendar month, with the index beside it. Not a highlight reel; the whole book.
SHOP was one of many. Here is the whole house book for October 2026: 22 sessions, +5.8% on the book against -0.9% for the S&P 500 over the same days, 44 trades closed, 41% of them up. Drag across the month.
| closed | shape | why | held | result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1 | long | Alpha under 60 | 6d | +0.40% |
| Oct 1 | short | Alpha over 40 | 5d | -9.98% |
| Oct 1 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | -1.15% |
| Oct 2 | long | Alpha under 60 | 7d | -8.08% |
| Oct 2 | long | Alpha under 60 | 7d | -1.18% |
| Oct 2 | long | Alpha under 60 | 5d | -1.06% |
| Oct 2 | long | Alpha under 60 | 2d | +4.33% |
| Oct 2 | long | Alpha under 60 | 1d | -2.29% |
| Oct 6 | short | Alpha over 40 | 9d | -2.16% |
| Oct 7 | long | Alpha under 60 | 6d | +3.79% |
| Oct 7 | long | Alpha under 60 | 3d | -1.02% |
| Oct 7 | long | Alpha under 60 | 3d | -3.56% |
| Oct 8 | short | Alpha over 40 | 10d | -2.24% |
| Oct 8 | long | Alpha under 60 | 7d | -2.12% |
| Oct 8 | long | Alpha under 60 | 5d | +0.43% |
| Oct 8 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | +1.01% |
| Oct 8 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | -4.87% |
| Oct 8 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | -0.69% |
| Oct 12 | short | Alpha over 40 | 13d | +3.84% |
| Oct 13 | long | Alpha under 60 | 5d | -2.51% |
| Oct 13 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | -5.36% |
| Oct 14 | short | Alpha over 40 | 15d | +0.54% |
| Oct 14 | long | Alpha under 60 | 2d | -7.33% |
| Oct 15 | long | Alpha under 60 | 15d | +2.29% |
| Oct 15 | long | Alpha under 60 | 10d | -4.59% |
| Oct 19 | long | Alpha under 60 | 4d | -1.58% |
| Oct 20 | long | Alpha under 60 | 9d | +0.35% |
| Oct 22 | long | day 21 | 21d | +16.90% |
| Oct 22 | short | day 21 | 21d | +8.10% |
| Oct 22 | short | Alpha over 40 | 20d | +7.01% |
| Oct 22 | long | Alpha under 60 | 9d | +2.91% |
| Oct 23 | long | day 21 | 21d | +12.21% |
| Oct 23 | long | Alpha under 60 | 2d | -4.22% |
| Oct 26 | long | Alpha under 60 | 12d | -0.43% |
| Oct 27 | long | day 21 | 21d | +10.07% |
| Oct 27 | long | Alpha under 60 | 9d | +1.09% |
| Oct 27 | short | Alpha over 40 | 2d | -4.71% |
| Oct 27 | long | Alpha under 60 | 1d | -1.23% |
| Oct 28 | long | Alpha under 60 | 14d | -2.04% |
| Oct 28 | long | Alpha under 60 | 9d | +2.12% |
| Oct 28 | long | Alpha under 60 | 2d | -5.11% |
| Oct 29 | long | day 21 | 21d | +16.38% |
| Oct 29 | long | Alpha under 60 | 12d | -3.61% |
| Oct 30 | long | Alpha under 60 | 3d | -11.14% |
Twenty slots, every qualifying trade taken at the close by the rules, exited by the rules, after average costs. Most closed trades are small; a few are large; the month is the sum. The book's daily mark is what moved that day across every open position, not any one name, which is why it is smoother than any of its trades and why its drawdown is the number to read first.
Key insight. A rules-based book is a long run of small, repeated bets. Any single month is a sample; the record since the book opened is the evidence, and the day each generation of rules took over is marked on it so nothing is retold.
Every settled day, what the rules opened and closed and the day's mark are written down once, hashed with the previous day, and the hash is published that evening; the records unseal after thirty sessions. A day cannot be edited afterwards without breaking every hash after it. The month above is drawn from that record.
The engine page carries the live book since the day it opened, by generation and by month, the replay since 2019, and the chain. The manual's chapter on reading it: Returns are not the number.
Keep this: judge the book by the month's drawdown and the record's length, not by its best trade. The record is public and cannot be rewritten; read it that way.
Analytical tools and historical measurements for educational and informational purposes only; not investment advice or a recommendation. Replayed figures are hypothetical: today's rules applied to past prices, after modelled costs, and no account was traded on them. Hypothetical results have inherent limitations and do not represent actual trading. Past performance, including backtested results, does not guarantee future outcomes. Trading stocks involves substantial risk of loss.
The Workshop is education, not advice. Replayed numbers are averages over many trades, after average trading costs (2 bps a side on a stock, 1 on a fund, included for fairness; yours vary by broker and liquidity) unless stated, and are not forecasts; the live record is on the engine page. Analytical tools and historical measurements for educational and informational purposes only; not investment advice or a recommendation. Replayed figures are hypothetical: today's rules applied to past prices, after modelled costs, and no account was traded on them. Hypothetical results have inherent limitations and do not represent actual trading. Past performance, including backtested results, does not guarantee future outcomes. Trading stocks involves substantial risk of loss. About · Support · Terms · Privacy · Refunds Open the deskManualThe EngineChangelog