How I check Market Health Every Day

I Replaced the Bloomberg Terminal With This

Author

J.L. Bernstein
September 28, 2025

Happy Sunday

Today, I’m unleashing to a small group of people what I’ve been personally building for months.

Every morning before open, I check ONE dashboard that tells me what Bloomberg charges $2,000/month to see.

Is the market actually strong, or is it just Tech/Mag 7 up again?

I’m trying to solve a problem destroying retail traders

We are all drowning in 47 tabs while institutions have ONE screen showing them this:

“Is it waves on the surface, or is the tide actually rising?”

When 400 stocks drift lower while only SPY’s top 10 rise = waves.
When 300+ stocks move up together = tide.

Never swim against the tide.

So this is the top section^

Market Indices Cards
Shows SPY, QQQ, IWM current prices with day/week/month changes and 5-day sparklines. Displays whether tech (QQQ) and small-caps (IWM) are outperforming or underperforming SPY.

IWM beating SPY means money moving into riskier assets (small caps vs blue chips); QQQ lagging SPY means flight to safer names out of Tech/AI for example.

This is the middle chunk.

Market Regime Box Algorithm compares three things:
QQQ vs SPY (tech leadership), IWM vs SPY (small-cap participation), and whether indices are green or red this week.

"Buyers in Control" = IWM outperforming + positive markets
"Defensive Tone" = IWM underperforming + flight to SPY safety
"Choppy" = mixed signals with no clear leader.

The algorithm simply tracks where money is flowing: into riskier assets (bullish) or into safety (bearish).

The logic this algo follows:

  • If small-caps (IWM) beat SPY by >0.5% this week → Risk-on environment

  • If tech (QQQ) leads everything → Growth is favored

  • If both lag SPY → Money hiding in mega-caps (defensive)

  • If signals conflict → "Choppy Action" (no index edge)

This isn't predictive, it's descriptive. It tells you what mkt environment we're in RIGHT NOW based on actual money flows between market segments.

and then my favorite part…

Breadth Gauges Four gauges show what % of S&P 500 stocks are green today and above 10/20/200-day moving averages.
The truth detector - SPY can be up 1% but if only 30% of stocks are green, that's distribution, not a real rally.

Historical Breadth Trends Plots breadth percentages over time (1W to YTD) with extremes marked at 25% and 80%. This is the bread and butter for this as far as context goes.
Divergence spotter and relative health for timing entries and exits based off historical breadth patterns.

10 seconds tells you everything:

  • Red line= Market weak → relatively good time to buy/scale in positions

  • Green line= Market strong → relatively good time to sell/trim risk on positions

  • All 4 time frames at once (day of, 10D, 20D, 200D)

-John