Separate readings of the market environment: buying conditions (0-100, higher = more favorable buying conditions) built from roughly 18 macro, volatility, breadth, flow and sentiment signals, and an independent froth check built only from froth evidence — reported as TWO numbers (how cheaply risk is priced, and how much the crowd is piling in), because froth means both at once and one number cannot say both.
Each of the ~18 contributing signals — the yield curve, VIX term structure and level, market breadth, high-yield credit spreads, insider cluster buys, congressional trading, analyst rating shifts, sector rotation, institutional 13F flow, random matrix theory mode strength, and more (some individually z-scored against their own history, others on fixed research-backed thresholds) — is combined into a raw composite, which is itself rescaled to 0-100 against its own trailing distribution. It recomputes daily on NYSE trading weekdays. (A quantum tunneling probability signal was also part of this composite until it was retired in 2026-07 after backtesting found its contribution was structurally unreachable at the model's evolution timescale — see the tunneling glossary page.)
The bands describe how favorable conditions are for BUYING, and nothing else: Strong Buy at 85+ (very favorable conditions), Buy at 65-84 (favorable conditions), Neutral at 35-64 (mixed, no clear edge), Caution at 15-34 (unfavorable conditions) and Strong Avoid below 15 (hostile conditions). The score is measured against this market's own trailing ~6 months, so 11/100 means "among the weakest readings of the last six months", not "the market is 11% healthy". A low band does not claim the market is frothy — froth is a separate reading, and it takes two numbers, not one.
A high score means conditions are more favorable, not that the market is rising: the composite is contrarian, so a washed-out, fearful tape scores high and an overextended, greedy one scores low.
No, and conflating the two is a common and expensive mistake. Buying conditions can be bad because the market is frothy, or because it is simply weak — thin breadth, institutions selling, no insider buying — under a perfectly calm surface. Those two states call for different responses, so froth is measured separately, from froth evidence only, and reported as TWO numbers: how cheaply risk is priced (a low VIX and tight high-yield credit spreads), and how much the crowd is piling in (greed in the Fear & Greed index, stretched breadth). Froth means both at once.
Why two numbers rather than one combined score? Because froth is an AND, and merging an AND into a single figure destroys the information: the combined number falls to zero whenever EITHER leg is zero. A calm, cheaply-priced market that the crowd ignores and a market in outright panic — where volatility is bid and credit spreads are wide — would then print exactly the same "not overheated". Those are opposite worlds. Reading the two legs side by side keeps them apart. The thresholds behind each leg are economically anchored design choices, not levels fitted to forward returns, and neither leg forecasts what the market does next.
Live example: Quantustik's current market conditions score is 19/100, verdict Caution as of 2026-07-21T02:01:04.647934+00:00. See the full dashboard for the underlying signal breakdown.
Hostile market conditions argue for smaller positions or an outright WAIT even on a name whose own quantum forecast looks attractive, because broad-market drawdowns tend to drag most stocks down together. Market-conditions and ticker-level signals are separate, complementary checks — neither overrides the other.
A composite score in the Strong Buy (85+) or Buy (65-84) bands, reflecting washed-out conditions where recent market pessimism has dried up selling pressure — favorable versus this market's own recent history, which is not a promise of profit.
BOTH legs of the froth check reading high at once: cheaply-priced risk (a low VIX and tight high-yield credit spreads) AND a crowd piling in (greed in the Fear & Greed index, stretched breadth). The two are reported as separate 0-100 numbers rather than merged into one, because a combined figure collapses to zero whenever either leg is zero — so it would read the same for a calm market the crowd ignores and for a market in outright panic, which are opposite states. A poor buying-conditions score on its own does not mean the market is frothy: it can equally mean the market is weak. Neither reading forecasts what happens next.
No. It describes the overall tape, not any single stock, and is one input among several, not a standalone signal.
Daily, on NYSE trading weekdays, as new macro, price and filing data becomes available.
Browse all S&P 500 tickers to see this metric applied to individual companies.
Educational research only — not investment advice.