Earnings Proximity
It's not there for decoration. It's a critical piece of context, and frankly, if you're ignoring it, you're flying blind.
The program looks up two things for the stock in question:
Days Until Next Earnings: How many trading days are left before the company is scheduled to report its quarterly results.
Days Since Last Earnings: How many trading days have passed since the company last reported earnings.
You'll see this summarized on the graph, like "Next earnings in 15 days | Last earnings 75 days ago".
Here's the deal, and this isn't rocket science: Earnings reports are volatility events. Period.
Companies drop news – revenue, profit, guidance, maybe some surprise announcement – and the stock reacts. Often violently. It can gap up massively, or gap down into oblivion overnight. The market's reaction to the news often matters more than the technical setup leading into it.
Trading a stock right before its earnings report is basically gambling on the report's outcome and the market's reaction. Trading right after can also be choppy as the market digests the news.
My program is designed to find technical setups based on historical price action and indicators. An impending earnings report throws a massive fundamental wrench into that predictable pattern.
Because earnings introduce significant, unpredictable risk, the program penalizes proximity.
Getting Closer to Earnings: The fewer days until the next earnings report, the lower the Confidence Score for any signal. The risk ramps up significantly in the final 10-15 days before a report.
Just After Earnings: Similarly, the immediate aftermath of an earnings report (say, the first 5 days) is often chaotic. Signals appearing in this window also get their confidence slightly reduced, though less severely than before the report.
Think of it as a risk adjustment. A technically perfect setup carries much more uncertainty five days before earnings than it does 50 days before. The Confidence Score reflects that.
Because you need to see it. Instantly.
Imagine seeing a beautiful chart pattern, a perfect signal firing... but the company reports earnings tomorrow. That context changes everything, doesn't it?
Putting the earnings proximity directly on the graph saves you the step of looking it up yourself (time = money, remember?). It puts that crucial risk factor right alongside the price action and the projection. It allows you to immediately assess whether a potentially good setup is overshadowed by an imminent earnings event.
It's basic risk management baked into the visualization. You see the setup, you see the projection, and you see the potential earnings landmine nearby. Essential data for making a smarter decision.
Consider it a critical warning sign or an all-clear signal, depending on the numbers. Ignoring it is just asking for trouble.
Caesar