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How to read the market with PulseAnchor
This page explains the system behind the dashboard. Read it once, and everything you see in the product will make sense. Takes about 5 minutes.
Five things the dashboard tells you
State — What kind of market is this?
The system reads market conditions the way a forecaster reads the sky. Like weather, markets cycle through seasons — bull, bear, transition. The dashboard shows you which season you're in right now, not what season you wish it were.
State answers: "Should I be aggressive, cautious, or patient?"
Direction — Is it getting better or worse?
State tells you where you are. Direction tells you where you're going. The dashboard shows whether the current state is strengthening, weakening, or holding steady, and how much it has shifted over the last five sessions.
Direction answers: "Is the wind at my back or in my face?"
Participation — How broad is the move?
A market that's rising on the back of five mega-cap stocks looks very different from one where hundreds of stocks are participating. Breadth ratios reveal whether the move is broadly supported or dangerously narrow.
Participation answers: "Is this a real move or a disguise?"
Structure — What's happening beneath the index?
The index is an average — it hides what's happening inside. Grade distribution shows how many stocks are in each state (Strength, Stress, Recovery, Repair, Weakness, Pause), revealing internal market health that the headline number can't.
Structure answers: "What's the index hiding from me?"
Transition — What's about to change?
Markets don't flip overnight. Stocks usually move between grades step by step, and the flow between grades shows where conditions are improving or coming under pressure. It is a reading of what is changing now, not a forecast.
Transition answers: "What should I be watching next?"
The three momentum layers
The Pulse7 engine reads market momentum in three layers, from fast to slow. Together they show whether the market is trending, transitioning, or conflicted.
Market Pulse7 — Fast Pulse
The most responsive of the three layers, first to register collective directional shifts across the market. When the Fast Pulse is positive, the market is reacting bullish on the surface. A wide gap between Market Pulse7 and Market Pulse3 shows that the Fast Pulse has stretched away from its anchor.
Market Pulse3 — Anchor Pulse
The steadier anchor beneath the Fast Pulse. Market Pulse3’s direction provides the system’s read of the market trend. Across historical observations, large separations between the two have often narrowed later; that relationship is context, not a timing rule. Divergence can mark a potential transition, but does not predict one by itself.
Market Pulse1 — Baseline Pulse
The slow background level for the market. Market Pulse1 versus Market Pulse3 reads as tailwind or headwind: when they move together the trend has wind at its back; when they diverge, the trend is fighting the background even if the Fast Pulse looks active.
The six grades
Every stock carries a grade describing its current condition. Grades are states, not scores: A is not simply “better” than B. Knowing which state a stock is in — and how the whole market is spread across the states — is fundamental to reading the dashboard.
Strength
Conditions are constructively aligned: a healthier state, not a guarantee.
Stress
Strength has come under pressure. Not collapse, but the next move matters.
Recovery
Rebuilding is underway: improving, but not yet full strength.
Repair
Trying to stabilise after damage: less broken, not yet strong.
Weakness
The most damaged state: broadly poor or fragile.
Pause
No clean direction yet: waiting, digesting or unclear. Neither bullish nor bearish on its own.
How stocks usually move between grades
Recovery path
Deterioration path
Recovery is usually staged: repair, then recovery, then strength. Stress can resolve back into strength or break down into weakness. Pause sits outside both paths.
Ready to see it in action?
A free account gets you the weekly market read with its Weather Card. The live dashboard, updated after every market close, is part of Core.
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