Moody Field is a news service. The service provides a daily report about investor sentiment in the stock market. The report includes a brief commentary, and a picture that summarizes current conditions. The sections below describe the contents of the picture.
Field Zones
Moody Field runs from 0 to 100, like a playing field. There is a midfield line at 50, and end zone lines at 30 and 70. The lines separate the field into four zones, named despondent, sad, happy and exuberant.
Tags
The Field is populated with tags that represent different groups of stocks.
Tags are located on the field by counting the number of stocks in the group that are rising,
and expressing that number as a percentage of the total number of stocks in the group.
'Rising' is determined mathematically from stock price movement in
two different ways, see below.
Activity
There are four horizontal bands running the length of the field. The bands are occupied by Cars, Sectors, Indexes, and Extras. Cars move differently than Sectors and Indexes, and Extras do not move at all.
Cars operate at three different speeds on three different stock exchanges, nine cars in total.Car positions are the percentage of listed stocks on each exchange that closed today above their own recent average price level. The 'recent' look-back is a short term history (1 month) for the Taxi, medium term (2.5 months) for the Sports Car, and longer term (10 months) for the Jalopy. The Cars are labelled on the field in black for New York, blue for Nasdaq, and purple for Toronto.
Sectors are the industry groups that make up the S&P 500, plus gold miners and crypto currencies. The Sectors each represent about 50 leading stocks, including samples from the New York, Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges.The fourteen sectors presently on the field are: COMM communications, CRPT crypto currencies, DISC consumer discretionary, ENER energy, FINA financials, GOLD gold miners, HEAL health, INDY industrials, INFO information technology, MATE materials, REAL real estate, STAP consumer staples, TELE telecom sevices, UTIL utilities.
The position of each Sector tag on the field is the percentage of rising stocks in that group. A rising stock is defined as one that has most recently made a new high. The stock stays 'rising' until it makes a new low.
Indexes are larger groups of stocks, across all sectors. The New York (NYA), Nasdaq (NAZ) and Toronto (TSX) tags represent all listed stocks on those exchanges. The SPX tag includes the top 500 stocks across all three exchanges. The OEX is the top 100 SPX stocks, and the NDX is the top 100 Nasdaq stocks. The Dow Jones Industrials (DJI, 30 stocks) and Dow Jones Transports (DJT, 20 stocks) are also on the field.The position of the Index tags is the percentage of rising stocks in their group. A rising stock is defined as one that has most recently made a new high. The stock stays 'rising' until it makes a new low.
Extras are waiting to go onto the field. All the tags have a green version and a red version. One is on the field, the other is held in the lower band as an extra. Extras replace the active players when they start going the other way.For example, tags that have been moving to the right recently are green. Once a tag starts moving to the left, it stays green until it goes left by six points. Then the red tag from Extras comes onto the field to replace it, and the green tag goes straight down from where it was to where it fits into the Extras. When the red tag bounces back six points from the next low the green tag springs back onto the field.
The position of the tags on the field may change daily, but the Extra tags never move until they are recalled onto the field. This holding place shows a record of the last turn for each car, sector, and index.
Statistical Panels
Statistical panels, which move around out of the way as the tags move, summarize the currrent trend and state of sentiment. The panels report conditions for Cars (C), Sectors (S) and Indexes (I).
Movement records changes on the field today. Each tag moved either Up, No Change, or Down. No Change includes tags that moved less than 1/2 point. There are nine Cars, fourteen Sectors, and eight Indexes on the field.
Position summarizes the location of tags across the four zones. Tags on a zone boundary are rounded up in the count. The field zones are named despondent (0~30), sad (30~50), happy (50~70) and exuberant (70~100). Individual positions change daily, crossing zone boundaries. Median position is shown on the field with blue arrows.
Trend shows the number of tags that are presently rising or falling due to price moves of their component stocks. Green (Up) tags have risen at least 6 points from their most recent low, and Red (Dn) tags have fallen at least 6 points from their most recent high. As conditions change, reds or greens increase, sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly. Oldtimers say the trend is your friend.
Rise & Fall records the names of Sectors and Indexes that moved more than 3 points today. The position of the tag name shows the number of points it rose or fell. The panel also records the names of tags that reversed, and were replaced by their Extra. This panel does not include the Cars.
Summary
The field picture at first may seem complex. It becomes simple with familiarity. You learn to read it. You will find yourself assigning personalities to certain tags. Remember that there are two types of 'rising' definition. Cars rise differently than S&I. The icons below summarize the field trends.
There is a game ball that you will notice on the field. The ball position is the percentage of S&I tags that are green.
In the upper band, the racing flags position is the percentage of Cars that are green. The ball and the flags give a quick visual reference to the current trend.
In the lowest band, there is a golden bench representing the percentage of green Extras. The bench position is a reciprocal average of the ball and the flags.
Armchairs bracket the Extras. Their positions might shift every month or two. You can anticipate armchair shifts by observing tag placements on the active field.
The arrows on each number line are at the median point of the tags. Cars have four tags and S&I have eleven tags on either side of their arrows.