Alex Desjardins

Alex's PF performance. - May 2026 📊🛡️ MTD ( +23.3% ) YTD ( +26.8% ) YTD benchmark QQQ ( +10.5% ) Hey guys! What a month —best monthly return since 2020 for me — another cruise month, back to back after April, and I'm very happy with my execution overall. We can always be better and keep improving, but this was a clean follow-through on everything I talked about last month: trust the system, trust the process, get size in the right names, and let the trend do the work. The one thing I'll flag on myself is that I went into that mid-month pullback a bit too exposed. I took some heat and drew down more than I wanted — but I played it well from there. I recognized the constructive action, held my positions, and stayed patient, which let me recover from the drawdown super quickly and push my EC into a fresh all-time high. That's the difference between reacting to noise and trusting what price is actually telling you. This month really came down to two things. First, adding to my core positions and trading around that core in what I see as the liquid leaders of the leading groups and themes — I did more of that and it paid well. Second, having real size in those leaders and staying patient with it, trusting the trend even when it looked extended. There's a lot of money to be lost trying to anticipate the end of a move, and I did well by simply not trying to do that. The win rate came in at 44.4% with a 1.94 RRR, and I pushed +36.2R in profits on the month. Lower hit rate than April, but it didn't matter — my winners did the heavy lifting at a 10.8% avg gain (biggest +47.6%) while I kept my losers tight at -4.3% avg. That asymmetry is the whole game: let the winners run, cut the losers fast. Now it's about staying disciplined and capturing the best part of this trend for as long as it lasts. Let's kill June, let's go! 💪 Cheers, Alex ✌️ • Every entry, exit, and trims are taken in real time in the PrimeTrading Discord community, with educational explanations for all trades. • I share all my trades and monthly trading performance results since January 2020 for transparency.

Prime Report — Mon. Nov. 2nd 📌 Today's Highlights — Monday, November 2 Oil had its sharpest drop in three months, WTI down about 7% to near $96, after Washington and Tehran signaled openness to talks and Iranian negotiators left Qatar with a draft deal. Asked after the settle whether he would strike Iran after Tuesday's vote, Trump twice said "No." Cheaper energy sent money into cyclicals and consumer names. $MRVL agreed to buy $LITE in an all-stock deal valued near $100B, 4.5 Marvell shares per Lumentum share, and fell more than 12%. $ORCL slid about 6% after filing to sell $10B of stock and $10B of notes for its AI build-out. The financing worries pulled the Nasdaq down 1.1%. $AAPL beat after the bell, EPS $2.10 against $1.99 on revenue of $114.5B, with iPhone up 17% but China short, then traded flat to lower after hours. $PLTR grew revenue 96% to $2.31B and raised its full-year guide to $8.53B, then swung either side of flat. 🗓️ Tomorrow — Tuesday, November 3 Midterm Election Day, with JOLTS the only data and $AMD the main print after the close. 💼 [10:00 AM ET — JOLTS Job Openings (September)] Consensus: 7.11–7.13M, after 7.08M. Factory orders land at the same time (Consensus: +1.2%). Focus: hires and quits ahead of Friday's October payrolls. 💻 [After Close — $AMD Q3] Consensus: EPS $1.95, revenue ~$13.09B against a $13.0B guide. Options imply ~±8.9%. Call 5:00 PM ET. Focus: data-center GPU revenue and the Q4 guide, after Friday's 11% drop on Intel's PC warning. 💻 [After Close — $ANET Arista Networks Q3] Consensus: EPS ~$1.08, revenue ~$3.33B against a ~$3.3B guide. Call 4:30 PM ET. Focus: the Q4 outlook against a Street near $3.6B, and AI networking demand a day after the Marvell-Lumentum deal. 🌍 [Evening — US Midterm Elections] All 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships are on the ballot, with results arriving overnight. Focus: control of each chamber, and index futures as the first read before Wednesday's open. Also: $PFE, $SHOP, $AMGN and $SMCI report Tuesday. primetrading.substack.com/p/…

Liquid Leaders 21dma-structure Pullback sorted by RS Rank. $VEEV, $BBY, $ADI, $ENTG, $SNPS, $CTSH, $TEL By @TradersLab_

PORTFOLIO UPDATE 11/02 Hey guys, Nothing changed today — if anything, the Risk-Off picture deteriorated further. $NQ made a new low, $AAPL and $PLTR had poor earnings reactions, VIX and credit spreads pushed to new highs, and Growth took another hit versus Value. The weird divergence remains breadth: MCSI is still trending higher and MCO remains overbought, right into the midterms tomorrow. So once again, nothing to do. I remain 100% cash and on the sidelines, waiting for the market to either repair itself or confirm that a larger correction is underway. No reason to guess which one comes first.

Liquid Leaders Scan sorted by RS Rank. $SN, $GEN, $ETSY, $ACN, $VEEV, $GM, $BBY, $CART, $ADI, $TXN, $SPOT, $RCL, $SWKS, $EXPE, $PHM, $GDDY, $EAT, $CCL, $TEAM, $CRWD By @TradersLab_

Themes Lab — 11/2 🧪 Themes ranked by 8-week RS change. BIGGEST RS GAINS (8w) • Global IT Consulting +26.3 → RS 82 • Oil & Gas Major +24.6 → RS 86 • Waste Management +19.3 → RS 60 • Engineering + Consulting +15.3 → RS 69 EMERGING • Self-Storage REIT +34.3 → RS 59 • Equipment Rental +30.2 → RS 60 BIGGEST RS LOSSES (8w) • Mining −32.4 • Oil & Gas Refining −29.6 • Genomics −26.7 SETUPS @ 21dma-structure area $VEEV 99 — Vertical SaaS $HCA 97 — Hospitals + Health Systems $WDAY 96 — ERP & Finance Software $CTSH 91 — Global IT Consulting $VIK 41 — Travel IT consulting has the RS change. Software has the setups. By: @TradersLab_

Nikkei 225 is also on the edge of a stage 4 breakdown. Looking very weak at the bottom of that multi-month base structure.

Prime Report — Sun. Nov. 1st 📌 Today's Highlights — Friday, October 30 $INTC had its worst day since 1974, down about 29%. A fourth-quarter EPS guide of $0.25 against $0.43 expected and a cash-burn warning buried the Q3 beat. $AMZN fell too after missing on revenue and profit, trailing free cash flow at negative $42.4B, and the Nasdaq lost 2.9% to close its worst month since March 2025. Oil went the other way. A tanker in the Strait of Hormuz was hit by explosives a small boat attached to its hull, the first successful limpet-mine strike there since the war began, and WTI settled up 2% at $104, its highest since April. Gold slipped below $4,000 to a July low as oil fed rate-hike fears. Big Oil cashed the squeeze. $XOM and $CVX both beat on refining margins and touched record highs, Exxon's quarterly profit doubling to $15.4B. 🗓️ Tomorrow — Monday, November 2 Factory data in the morning and $AAPL after the bell, on the eve of Tuesday's midterms. ⛽ [All Day — Hormuz and OPEC+] OPEC+ held December targets steady Sunday, its third straight pause, with Gulf members still pumping below quota. Brent's January contract settled Friday at $113.43. Focus: tanker-strike headlines and flows through the strait. 🏭 [10:00 AM ET — ISM Manufacturing (October)] Consensus: 54.6–54.7, after 54.5; prices paid 77.5 from 77.9. Focus: prices paid with WTI above $100, and new orders after 55.3. 💻 [After Close — $AAPL Apple FQ4 2026] Consensus: EPS $1.98–1.99, revenue ~$113.4B, up about 10.6%. Options imply ~±4.3%. Call 5:00 PM ET. Focus: the December-quarter guide, and gross margin against the 47–48% guide as memory costs rise. 💻 [After Close — $PLTR Palantir Q3] Consensus: EPS $0.41, revenue ~$2.18B, up about 85%. Options imply ~±11.0% to ~±13.3% across sources. Focus: the full-year guide, with the stock up about 57% since its August report. Also: construction spending at 10:00 AM; Senior Loan Officer Survey at 2:00 PM. primetrading.substack.com/p/…

Themes Lab — 11/1 🧪 Themes ranked by 8-week RS change. BIGGEST RS GAINS (8w) • Global IT Consulting +26.4 → RS 81 • Oil & Gas Major +24.8 → RS 87 • Engineering + Consulting +14.7 → RS 68 • Hotel REIT +14.6 → RS 73 EMERGING • Self-Storage REIT +31.6 → RS 57 • Hospitality +27.1 → RS 63 BIGGEST RS LOSSES (8w) • Mining −29.8 • Genomics −26.1 • Asset Management −23.4 SETUPS @ 21dma-structure area $ZS 99 — Cybersecurity $WDAY 97 — ERP & Finance Software $CTSH 92 — Global IT Consulting Consulting and oil majors have the RS gains. Software and IT services have the setups. By: @TradersLab_

Liquid Leaders 50dma-structure Pullback sorted by RS Rank. $OKTA, $CRWD, $ENTG, $P, $GME, $CTSH, $TEL By @TradersLab_

Liquid Leaders 21dma-structure Pullback sorted by RS Rank. $BBY, $S, $RBRK, $ADI, $ENTG, $SNPS, $CTSH By @TradersLab_

Liquid Leaders Scan sorted by RS Rank. $SN, $GEN, $ETSY, $ACN, $BBY, $CART, $S, $GM, $OKTA, $RBRK, $ADI, $SWKS, $SPOT, $TEAM, $TXN, $CRWD, $GDDY, $EAT, $PANW, $SHOP By @TradersLab_

PORTFOLIO UPDATE 10/30 Hey guys, Pretty easy one to close the week. After yesterday’s failure, I gave the remaining positions one more chance this morning, but the broader market continued to deteriorate and there was really no reason for me to stay involved. I closed $OKTA, $P and the remaining $ADI, which puts me back to 100% cash / 0% gross equity exposure. Today’s action: CLOSED: $OKTA +3.4%, $P -4.1%, $ADI +5.3% CURRENT EXPOSURE: 0% At this point, Risk-Off is no longer just a tech story. $QQQ has obviously been hit hard by the MAGS earnings reactions, but today we also started seeing much broader confirmation. $NQ is breaking down on the weekly, $ES closed below structure for the first real time, while $RTY and $DJI both rejected their declining 10wma-structures. The internals aren’t giving me any reason to fight that either. VIX spiked hard and remains above rising weekly structure, credit spreads are now actually sustaining a weekly uptrend for the first time since 2022, and Growth leadership just made a new low — its weakest level since 2023. The Growth Cycle remains firmly Risk-Off. Yesterday I talked about how I probably should have respected that model and stayed completely out instead of anticipating improvement. Today only reinforces that lesson. This is exactly why I built the Growth Cycle: when Growth isn’t leading and the broader risk environment isn’t supportive, I don’t need to find reasons to own equities. So I’m back where I was last week: all cash, no urgency, and no interest in guessing where the bottom is. The market clearly needs repair now. I’ll let everyone else try to catch the low — my job is to wait for the low to happen, then evaluate whether the right side starts building something worth risking capital on. For now, protecting both financial and mental capital is the trade. Enjoy the weekend guys. See you next week 👊

Big breakout into new highs in Crude Oil

Is that $ INTC's price action today? ☕️ quiz!!

Coffee fun fact. Yesterday was actually the largest one-day loss for $GOOG, at -12.3%

GROWTH CYCLE The Growth Cycle is designed to answer one question: how aggressively should we be treating the current environment? It combines two pieces of information: Risk Gate — Is Growth in a risk-on or risk-off regime? The risk gate is based on the 10-week structure of Growth vs. Value. A close above that structure confirms risk-on, while a close below confirms risk-off. If the ratio moves back inside the structure, the model keeps the last confirmed regime to avoid constantly flipping during normal market noise. Momentum — Is that regime strengthening or weakening? The horizontal axis tracks the short-term change in the Growth/Value relationship. Rising momentum moves the cycle to the right; fading momentum moves it back to the left. Together, those two inputs create the six Growth Cycle zones: Risk-Off → Probe → Ramp Up → Trim / Hold → Reload → back through the cycle The important point is that these zones are not simple buy or sell signals. They describe the combination of regime, momentum and extension, helping determine whether the environment favors probing, adding exposure, holding existing winners, trimming strength, or becoming defensive.

PORTFOLIO UPDATE 10/29 $OKTA $P $ADI Hey guys, Not the action I wanted to see today, and I think there’s a pretty clear lesson for me in this one. Over the last few days I tried to anticipate a potential higher low as breadth improved, credit started acting better and some individual leaders were reclaiming structure. There was enough evidence there for me to test it, but the signals were still mixed. Most importantly, the Growth Cycle has remained Risk-Off since October 16th. Looking back at it now, I probably should have treated that exactly the same way I treated last week: stay in cash and let the market prove itself first. Instead, I tried to get ahead of the confirmation. Today that anticipation setup started failing. I closed $HPE, $MRVL, $IBIT, $SNOW, $MDB and $NTAP, and finished the day around 35% exposure, keeping only $OKTA, $P and $ADI for now. Today’s action: ADDED: $OKTA CLOSED: $HPE -2.6%, $MRVL -12.2%, $IBIT -2.2%, $SNOW -5.9%, $MDB -4.7%, $NTAP -2.5% There is actually something positive I take from this, though. The Growth Cycle is still a relatively new part of my system, and situations like this are exactly how I build conviction in a new tool. I created it because I wanted a cleaner way to answer a very simple question: when Growth isn’t outperforming and momentum isn’t there, why am I forcing long exposure? The model stayed Risk-Off through this entire attempt. Had I simply respected it, I would have avoided a lot of unnecessary trades and noise. That’s useful feedback, even if learning it in real time comes with a cost. The market still sucks. Unless we get a meaningful change tomorrow, I may very well be back to 100% cash, exactly where I was last week, and perfectly comfortable waiting on the sidelines again. No need to force the next move. The market can earn my exposure back.