Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Good morning, Five Star Traders!
I love getting ready for summertime trading! We are officially stepping out of the classic June lull and into one of my favorite seasonal setups of the entire year: pre-earnings momentum trading going into July and August. The first two weeks of June can be historically rocky, as earnings reports thin out dramatically.
Earnings have been a major catalyst in the market, causing a ton of big moves, so when they quiet down, so can the market’s excitement. When these big-money catalysts dry up, combined with kids finishing school, and families packing up for vacations, many traders can be mentally checked out in summer mode. That lack of fuel often leaves the market choppy, range-bound, and a little bit “rocky.”
The Pre-Earnings Momentum Edge
But here’s what gets me excited: that lull is almost over, and the summertime season can bring some fantastic trend-following trading. We are now just days away from the ramp-up where earnings calendars start lighting up again. Implied volatility begins to expand, option premiums fatten, and the stocks that have been quietly squeezing start showing up on my proprietary Hot Zone scans.
Check out the graphic that gives you a visual of my strategy:
Sign up here to join my webinar tomorrow, where I’ll walk through my Pre-Earnings Momentum Edge, and new & improved Five Star Earnings System and Tools!
Earnings Hot Zone Scans
One method I use to identify which tickers work best with this strategy is through scans. My scans identify the names with the largest historical average moves during the Earnings Hot Zone over the last 4 quarters (the PreER21D column shown below).
I just ran fresh scans this morning, and as you can see, there are many tickers with large historical moves before earnings! This means they are more likely to have a statistically significant move this quarter.
Here are some of the standouts entering the Hot Zone right now:
Hot Zone Scan Highlights
Tech / Semi Names Heating Up Fast
- MU (Micron Technology) – 20.84% average historical move = $19+ in just 9 days (earnings 06/24 AMC). This one is already in full pre-earnings orbit.
- NFLX (Netflix) – 3.23% average historical move, earnings 07/16 AMC.
Financials Cluster (Heavy Volume Expected)
- C (Citigroup) – 8.01% average historical move
- GS (Goldman Sachs) – 7.12% average historical move
- MS (Morgan Stanley) – 6.55% average historical move
- WFC (Wells Fargo) – 6.1% average historical move
- JPM (JPMorgan Chase) – 5.88% average historical move
- USB, PNC, SCHW also showing strong readings
Consumer & Industrials Building Steam
- PEP (PepsiCo) – 3.96% average historical move, earnings 07/09 BMO
- DHI (D.R. Horton) – 3.72% average historical move, 07/21 BMO
- KO (Coca-Cola) – 4.42% average historical move, 07/21 BMO
- GE (GE Aerospace), LMT (Lockheed Martin), HAL (Halliburton) – all showing solid pre-earnings expansion
These names are exactly what I look for when seasonality flips from “quiet June” to “earnings volatility explosion.” The financials, especially, are clustered around mid-July reporting dates, which usually signal a wave of institutional positioning and big-volume spikes over the next 2–3 weeks.
My Take:
Stay patient through any leftover chop this week, but start sharpening your watchlist. The setups I love most combine a strong Earnings Hot Zone reading with clean technical levels, a squeeze, and elevated volume. When those three line up, the risk/reward on both directional swings and volatility plays gets extremely favorable.
Bottom line: The rocky part of June is winding down. The high-volatility, high-opportunity part is just getting started.
Trade with discipline, trade with edge,
