Skill pack

Equities

Sessions, settlement, order types, shorting, halts, corporate actions and equity desk practice.

Raw markdown · Download Claude SKILL.md · Last verified 2026-10-14

Load this into your agent

Claude

Download https://theagentictrader.com/skills/equities/SKILL.md and add it as a Skill (Settings > Capabilities > Skills, upload as a zip containing a folder with SKILL.md), or paste it into a Project's instructions. Then start with: "Use the equities-trading-desk skill for this conversation."

ChatGPT

Read this skill pack and follow it for the rest of this conversation (or save it in a Project's instructions or a custom GPT): https://theagentictrader.com/skills/equities.md
Confirm the risk rules and the "never do" list back to me in 5 bullets before we start.

Grok Bot

Load the trading skill pack at https://theagentictrader.com/skills/equities.md and save it to your persistent notes/memory as "Equities desk skill". Apply its risk rules and "never do" list in every future session about equities. Confirm what you saved.

OpenClaw

Install this as a skill: create a folder skills/equities-trading-desk/ in your OpenClaw workspace and save https://theagentictrader.com/skills/equities/SKILL.md into it, then reload skills. Use it for all equities research, checks and journaling. Never place orders.

Equities: professional trading knowledge for AI agents

When to use this skill

Load this when helping a trader research, screen, check or journal stocks and ETFs, US-focused. Educational and analytical only.

Core concepts

Sessions. The US regular session runs 9:30 to 16:00 ET. Pre-market and after-hours sessions have thinner liquidity, wider spreads and often order-type restrictions, so check what's supported.
Settlement. US stock trades settle T+1 (one business day) since May 28, 2024.
Order types. Market orders prioritize execution over price; limit orders control price but may not fill; stop orders become market orders when triggered and can fill well beyond the stop in a gap.
Shorting. Short sales generally need a borrow ("locate") under SEC Regulation SHO. Hard-to-borrow names carry fees and recall risk. Losses on a short are theoretically unlimited.
Volatility controls. Limit Up–Limit Down (LULD) can pause trading in individual stocks; market-wide circuit breakers halt trading on S&P 500 declines of 7%, 13% and 20% (Level 3 halts for the rest of the day).
Pattern day trading. FINRA rules have imposed minimum equity requirements on margin accounts flagged as pattern day traders (historically $25,000). These rules have been under review, so check current FINRA rules and your broker's policy.
Corporate actions. Earnings, dividends (ex-dividend date), splits, spin-offs, offerings and index rebalances all move prices and change positions.

Pro vocabulary

Float, short interest, days to cover, borrow fee, ADV (average daily volume), VWAP, spread, liquidity, gap, catalyst, guidance, consensus, beat/miss, multiple (P/E, EV/EBITDA), free cash flow, dilution, buyback, sector rotation, beta, factor exposure, relative strength.

How a professional desk thinks

Start from catalysts and liquidity, then valuation and positioning.
Position size is driven by the distance to invalidation and the account's risk per trade, adjusted for liquidity (a small-cap position you can't exit quickly is riskier than it looks).
Earnings are binary-like events: either size for the gap or don't hold through.
Correlation and sector concentration matter more than the number of tickers.
Primary sources (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, transcripts) outrank commentary.

Key risks and common mistakes

Gaps through stops on news or earnings.
Concentration in one theme across "different" tickers.
Chasing low-float momentum names with wide spreads.
Ignoring dilution (offerings, convertibles, stock compensation).
Treating short interest as a squeeze signal without borrow and float context.
Trading thin extended-hours sessions with market orders.

Risk rules the agent applies

Check upcoming earnings, ex-dividend and other scheduled events against the planned holding period.
Flag positions above the operator's max sector or single-name concentration.
Compare position size to average daily volume; flag illiquidity.
For shorts, flag borrow availability, fees and unlimited-loss risk.
Cite primary filings for fundamental claims, with dates.

What the agent must never do

Never recommend buying, selling, shorting or holding a security.
Never give price targets or predict earnings reactions.
Never place or manage orders.
Never present social-media sentiment as evidence of value.

Sources to verify

SEC EDGAR filings: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search/
SEC Investor.gov (T+1, order types, short sales): https://www.investor.gov
FINRA rules and investor guidance (margin, day trading): https://www.finra.org
NYSE and Nasdaq trader information on halts and LULD: https://www.nyse.com/markets/hours-calendars and https://www.nasdaqtrader.com

Educational only. Not financial advice. The Agentic Trader teaches how to organize AI agents around your own research and review process. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security or asset. We do not endorse any broker, platform, or asset. AI output can be wrong, so verify everything and make your own decisions. Trading and investing involve risk of loss.