# Earnings gap diagnostic + SUE / PEAD (Tier-1 alpha research)

**Status:** **CLOSED — SUE DEAD**.
**Branch:** `research/earnings-gap-and-sue`
**Production impact:** none. Local research only; no earnings filter or SUE integration is shipped.

---

## Pre-registration (locked before the final research run)

### Data

- Historical earnings announcements for the production universe, stored in the
  real `earnings_events` table and deduplicated on symbol + announcement date.
- The originally requested 2016 start is amended, with user approval, to the
  public source's announcement coverage start of 2020-01-22. Earlier EPS-period
  history may scale later surprises but may never activate a live signal.
- Report coverage, pairing, duplicates/restatements, annual-rate sanity, and
  announcement-session quality before either experiment.
- Point-in-time: an earnings surprise is usable only from announcement date +1
  trading day. Same-day use is forbidden.

### Experiment 2a — earnings-gap risk (defense, report-only)

Run the production-config book on the approximately 505-name production
universe with close fills and 0.001 transaction cost per side. Join simulated
trades to earnings by symbol and date.

1. Among closed trades with realized net R ≤ -1.0, report the fraction with an
   announcement strictly after entry and before exit, alongside the base rate
   for all trades.
2. Compare entries within three trading sessions before an announcement with
   all other entries: count, mean/median R, win rate, p05, and p95.
3. Compare stops within one trading session after an announcement with all
   other stops and exits.

Verdict is always `INFORMATIONAL`. Report only: no filter arm, recommendation,
or implementation. The right tail must be shown alongside the left tail.

### Experiment 2b — SUE / PEAD (offense)

Signal `sue_latest`:

\[
\text{SUE} = \frac{\text{actual} - \text{estimate}}
{\sigma(\text{trailing 8 surprises})}
\]

Use at least four trailing surprises; if estimate history fails the registered
quality gate, use `(actual - estimate) / price` and name that fallback. Activate
at announcement date +1 trading day, carry for 63 trading days, then drop the
symbol from the cross-section.

Evaluate mean weekly Spearman IC on the existing non-overlapping-window harness.
Always report `sue_latest`, `mom_12_1`, and `mom_12_1_resid` on identical
week-symbol-forward-return cells, plus SUE inside the top momentum quintile.

### Mechanical verdict rule

- **PASS** only if unconditional `sue_latest` has mean IC ≥ +0.03,
  `reliable: true` (at least 12 windows), and positive signs in both the pre-2021
  and post-2021 eras.
- **FAIL** otherwise, with terminal verdict `SUE DEAD for this stack`.
- PASS stops at `SUE PASS→PENDING_HUMAN`; integration design remains a separate
  human decision. FAIL is terminal and no variants are proposed.

---

## Results

### Data quality gate

Approved earnings window: 2020-01-22 to 2026-07-17. Source mode: dolthub_public_bulk_clone.

| check | result |
|---|---:|
| Prod symbols requested / tradable | 506 / 505 |
| Manifest complete + live counts match | True |
| Prod symbols with pre-2021 bars | 491 (97.2%) |
| SPY benchmark depth | 2649 rows, 2016-01-04 to 2026-07-17 |
| Snapshot depth gate | True |
| Bulk source windows / requests logged | 1/1 / 1 |
| Source repository / pinned commit | https://www.dolthub.com/repositories/post-no-preference/earnings @ 9n0et3hpj9j7vue8f3qsldon3qa5sdjj |
| Source license / upstream provider documented | CC-BY-SA-4.0 / False |
| Existing-source conflicts preserved | 940 rows / 1526 fields |
| Symbols with >=8 announcements | 498 (98.6%) |
| Symbols with >=8 paired announcements | 495 (98.0%) |
| Events with estimate + actual | 12311/12414 (99.2%) |
| Duplicate rows in keyed table | 0 |
| Duplicate / restated payload rows fetched | 0 / 940 |
| Mean announcements per active symbol-year | 4.08 (expected about 4) |
| Symbols far off (<2 or >6/year, incl. zero) | 1 |
| Recognised BMO/AMC/during | 92.8% (reliable=True) |
| Point-in-time policy | announce_date_plus_1_trading_day_for_all_events |
| SUE price fallback | not_used |

Deduplication: UNIQUE(symbol, announce_date); normalise dot/dash symbols; retain one calendar row per key; preserve existing non-null session/EPS values from the prior FMP/Alpha Vantage partial backfill, then fill nulls and all remaining symbols from DoltHub; attach DoltHub period-end alignment

Far-off announcement-rate symbols: SPCX

### Experiment 2a - earnings-gap risk diagnostic

Verdict: **INFORMATIONAL**. Report-only; no filter arm or implementation.

Trade cohort is restricted to the approved earnings-coverage window 2020-01-22 to 2026-07-17; 0 simulated trades outside that window were excluded.

| cohort | count | fraction |
|---|---:|---:|
| Realized net R <= -1.0 | 266 | - |
| Losses with announcement strictly inside hold | 23 | 0.0865 |
| All trades with announcement strictly inside hold | 115 | 0.2003 |

| Entry cohort | count | mean R | median R | win rate | p05 R | p95 R |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| Within 3 sessions before earnings | 27 | 0.4837 | -1.0265 | 0.3333 | -1.1463 | 5.981 |
| All other entries | 547 | 0.2734 | -0.8316 | 0.3565 | -1.1228 | 4.5888 |

Tail deltas (pre minus other): p05=-0.0235, p95=1.3922.

Registered directional tail condition is not present.

| Exit cohort | count | mean R | median R | win rate | p05 R | p95 R |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| Stops within 1 session after earnings | 26 | -0.6434 | -0.9753 | 0.2308 | -2.4614 | 1.1142 |
| All other stops | 433 | -0.5035 | -1.0278 | 0.1963 | -1.1373 | 1.3591 |
| All other exits | 548 | 0.3273 | -0.8361 | 0.3613 | -1.0644 | 4.7224 |

### Experiment 2b - SUE / post-earnings drift

Mechanical verdict: **FAIL** - SUE DEAD for this stack

Identical cross-sections:

| signal | mean IC | t | windows | avg N | IC positive % | reliable |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
| sue_latest | 0.0148 | 1.27 | 56 | 450.9 | 51.8 | true |
| mom_12_1 | 0.0195 | 0.74 | 56 | 450.9 | 58.9 | true |
| mom_12_1_resid | 0.0262 | 1.07 | 56 | 450.9 | 55.4 | true |

Unconditional SUE grade row:

| signal | mean IC | t | windows | avg N | IC positive % | reliable |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
| sue_latest | 0.0151 | 1.29 | 56 | 451.4 | 51.8 | true |

Era stability:

| era | mean IC | t | windows | avg N | IC positive % | reliable |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---|
| pre-2021 | 0.0286 | 0.7 | 9 | 398.3 | 55.6 | false |
| post-2021 | 0.0172 | 1.34 | 48 | 461.9 | 64.6 | true |

Coverage: 501 symbols with live SUE; avg weekly N=453.1; scored non-overlap avg N=451.4.

Cross-section is not flagged thin at the registered <100-name read.

Momentum-conditional top-quintile SUE: mean IC=0.0213, t=1.3, windows=56, avg N=89.8.

## Artifacts

- `reports/earnings-2a-gap-20260720-dolthub-final.json` and companion Markdown
- `reports/earnings-2b-sue-20260720-dolthub-final.json` and companion Markdown
- `reports/earnings-backfill-status.json`

Production changes: **none**. No earnings filter or SUE integration was implemented.

## Final status: **Task 2 CLOSED (SUE DEAD)**