Earnings season: the night of a release and the next day's session

Four times a year, for three to four weeks, Nasdaq-100 companies publish their quarterly results. The eight large names almost all do it after the close, between 10:05 and 10:30 pm in Paris, and the NQ is the only liquid instrument reacting live. It is a terrain apart, with its own rules.

The calendar

• Mid January to mid February, mid April to mid May, mid July to mid August, mid October to mid November: the four seasons. The large names generally report in the second and third week of each season, one to three per evening.
• The index's first semiconductor maker reports off-cycle, about three weeks after the others (late February, late May, late August, late November). Its release has been, for several years, the most important micro event of the season for the NQ, often more than any macro number of the period.
• The exact calendar is public and confirmed by each company two to three weeks ahead; it goes into your journal on the first day of the season.