GLOSSARY // Fundamentals
Earnings Season
Earnings season is the four-to-six-week stretch after each calendar quarter ends when most public companies report results, kicking off in mid-January, mid-April, mid-July, and mid-October. The big banks traditionally open it, megacap tech lands two to three weeks in, and small caps straggle through the tail.
For traders it is the densest catalyst calendar of the year. Single-day moves of 5-15% become routine, options implied volatility inflates into each report and collapses after, and sector sympathy plays fire constantly: one chipmaker's blowout quarter moves the whole group premarket. StockTools runs a free earnings calendar so you can see which of your names report which week.
During April earnings season a trader checks the calendar and finds 3 of her 8 holdings report in the same week. One has options pricing an 8% implied move. It gaps 12% instead, and the sympathy move drags a second holding, which reports the following week, up 4% before it has said a word. Position sizing around the calendar is the difference between a plan and a coin flip.
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Educational only — not financial advice. Definitions simplified for clarity; markets are messier than definitions.