Two megacaps report earnings this week. Retail traders will watch the numbers. They will adjust their positions based on the results. They will lose money anyway because earnings have nothing to do with where a stock goes in the next three months.
Alphabet could beat on every metric. The stock could drop eight percent because some analyst expected a different shade of green in the revenue column. Tesla could miss across the board and rally twelve percent because Elon tweeted a picture of a robot that doesn't work yet. The earnings are irrelevant. The reaction is random. You are betting on which way a drunk throws up.
Someone will read the Alphabet release at 4:01 PM. They will scan for the EPS number. They will see it beat by four cents. They will buy calls. By 4:03 PM the stock will be down because institutional money already priced in a six-cent beat based on channel checks you don't have access to. That person will hold through the morning thinking it will recover. It won't.
Tesla's numbers will be dissected for clues about delivery trends and margin compression and production capacity in Shanghai. None of it matters. The stock trades on vibes and whether or not retail thinks Elon is winning his latest fight with regulators. You could replace the actual earnings with a dartboard and get the same price action.
Earnings season exists to give financial media something to talk about and to separate day traders from their capital. The playbook is simple. The megacaps report. The headlines say they beat or missed. The stocks move in whichever direction f*cks the most people. Your technical levels will hold or they won't, and the earnings had nothing to do with it.
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