trader-entry

The Entry Timer turns a setup into one moment: the bar that confirms it. It reads bars, 1-minute or 5-minute, and waits for each one to finish. A price that pokes above the high in the middle of a bar is not an entry. A bar that CLOSES above it is. Then it says the time and the price, writes them down for the Exit Planner, and stops. It never buys anything. Day trading loses most people money, and a clean signal does not change that.

${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} below is this skill's folder (where this SKILL.md lives).

python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" check TSLA                  # 15-minute opening range, 5-minute bars
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" check TSLA --write          # also save trader/entry.json
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" check TSLA --setup level --level 371.20
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" check TSLA --interval 1m --min-volume-x 1.5
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" watch TSLA --until 15:30    # one line per closed bar, stops on the trigger
python3 "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/entry.py" watchlist                   # every hit in trader/watchlist.json

Other flags: --or-minutes N (default 15), --json, --offline FILE (a saved Yahoo chart JSON, .json or .json.gz, or a folder of <TICKER>.json), --now "2026-10-19 10:15" (New York time) to replay a day. watch with --now or --offline runs on a simulated clock and replays the day bar by bar without waiting.

What it reads and writes

The rule

• Opening range (orb). The high and low of the first 15 minutes: the 9:30, 9:35 and 9:40 five-minute bars, or fifteen 1-minute bars. The level to beat is the range high.
• Level. A price you give, like a 20-day high from /trader-scanner.
• The trigger is the first completed bar after the range that CLOSES above the level. A wick above is not a trigger. A close exactly at the level is not above it.
• The time is that bar's close time (the 10:10 bar closes at 10:15 AM). The price is its close, to the cent.
• Only closed bars count. A bar is closed when the clock passes its start plus 5 (or 1) minutes and Yahoo has caught up to that moment (it waits a minute at most). Yahoo's live tick, like 10:49:45, is never a bar.
• Volume, if you want it. --min-volume-x 1.5 also needs the trigger bar's volume at 1.5 times the range bars' average. The 9:30 bar holds the opening auction, so 1.0 is already strict.
• Time limits. No entries before 9:45 or after 15:30 (config). On a 1:00 p.m. early close the cutoff moves up with the close, to 12:30.
• What it says. Waiting (and how far the last close is from the level), triggered, expired, or no data. Before 9:30: not open yet. Before 9:45: the range is still forming. Weekends and NYSE holidays: the market is closed.

Steps

1. Get the symbol from the user, or run entry.py watchlist after /trader-scanner. Check /trader-news for it first.
2. Run entry.py check SYMBOL. Tell the user the status in one line: waiting and how far, triggered at what time and price, or expired.
3. To wait for it, Claude can run entry.py watch SYMBOL --until 15:30 in the background, or entry.py check SYMBOL --write on a /loop every 5 minutes. watch wakes just after each bar closes, prints one line per bar, and exits 0 on the trigger (it writes trader/entry.json) or 1 when the setup expires. Keep the computer awake while it watches: a sleeping laptop pauses it, and it catches up, late, when it wakes.
4. When it triggers, say the time and the price, and that nothing was placed. If the trigger is more than a bar old, say that too: a late entry is a different trade.
5. Hand off to /trader-exit to set the stop and the target BEFORE anything is bought.

Example: the reel

TSLA, Monday 2026-10-19, 5-minute bars. The opening range is 354.47 to 362.18. At 10:12 the 10:10 bar is still open, so it waits:

WAITING  last close $361.68 (10:05 bar), $0.50 under the range high $362.18 (-0.14%).
The 10:10 bar is still forming ($364.18 so far, closes 10:15 AM); it does not count until it closes.

At 10:15 the bar has closed:

TSLA  Mon 2026-10-19 10:15 ET  opening-range breakout (15-minute range) on 5-minute bars (Yahoo, free, can lag)
Opening range 9:30-9:45: high $362.18, low $354.47 (3 of 3 bars).
TRIGGERED 10:15 AM at $364.18: the 10:10 bar (bar 8) closed above the range high $362.18 (+0.55%).
This is the moment to get in, if you take the trade. Nothing was placed.
Next: set the stop and target BEFORE you buy: /trader-exit (exit.py plan --from trader/entry.json).

With --min-volume-x 1 the 10:10 bar is too thin (0.60x the range's volume) and the trigger moves to 10:35 AM at 365.75 (the 10:30 bar, 7.98x).

Rules

• Bar by bar, on free Yahoo 1-minute or 5-minute bars. They are unofficial and can lag. Say so when a minute matters.
• A signal is information, not an order, and not a promise. Nothing here promises winning trades or money.
• Long side only. v2 plans longs only. If the user wants a short, say that.
• One trigger per setup per day: the first close above. Later closes do not reset it.
• Never call an entry early because a bar looks like it will close above.

What it never does

It never places an order, never sizes a position, never sets the stop (that is /trader-exit), never moves the level after the fact, and never counts a bar that has not closed. It never runs /trader-broker from a background watch: nobody is there to say yes.

Safety

• Education and tooling, not financial advice. A PASS is a rules check, not a recommendation.
• Paper trading by default ("paper": true). Going live is the user's own decision, in their own config.
• Nothing in this pack places an order except trader-broker, and only when all three hold: trader-risk passed that exact order today, the user typed an explicit yes for that one order in the chat, and the user clicked Allow once on Claude's own card because the order tool is set to "Needs approval" (Customize > Connectors > tool permissions). Never set an order tool to "Always allow".
• No options, margin, short selling or leverage unless the config allows it and the user confirms.
• Broker keys live in environment variables or the Claude Desktop config, never in the chat.