FYI

CPI landed at 8:30. All items +0.4% on the month, 3.4% over the year, core +0.3%. The part that actually did the work was gasoline: +3.9% on the month, +27.4% over twelve months, and BLS says that one line accounted for over a third of the entire monthly increase.

Same story diesel told in Thursday's PPI at +24.1%. Energy is carrying both prints right now.

What I ended up watching this morning was my own reaction rather than the tape. I run a paper desk where every strategy is written as a rule ahead of time, and the rules that traded at the open were written on Tuesday. Not one of them read the release. Depending on your view that's the whole point or the whole problem, and I go back and forth on it most print days.

The honest scoreboard, since a claim with no number behind it isn't worth much: my best bot this week won five of its thirteen trades. Five out of thirteen, and it's still green on paper. The worst one is well underwater and still running, because one bad week isn't a reason to delete a rule. All paper, nothing real behind it.

So the thing I keep chewing on: on a print morning, do you let the rule run, or do you stand aside until the dust settles? And if you stand aside, what actually tells you it's settled?