Color first: three clocks above (year / week / day). Permission is the referee and is never averaged with weather. When clocks conflict, wait. The steps below are the same cluster, written out — not a second verdict.
Question this answers: is the weekly referee allowing new breakout size, or is the map study-only?
Verdict FULL vs GATED (or manage). Read it once, then leave it. It is weekly permission, not today's 60-second mood.
FULL: new breakout size is allowed by the referee — you still need weather, stage, and leadership below before you hunt names. GATED: manage open winners and cut losers; do not add new breakout size. Keep walking the map so you know the neighborhood when permission returns.
Conflict rule: a hot session tape never overrides GATED. Pulse and CAN SLIM come after the weekly map, not before.
Question this answers: is liquidity and growth still expanding, or is the tape being taxed by tighter money and a stronger dollar? Read Interest Rates, FX, and Ratios together. One green SPY week does not cancel a tightening cluster.
Yields still rising (TNX up, TLT down) while SHY holds or rises vs TLT; dollar grinding higher; copper/gold rolling over (growth scare); HYG vs LQD or HYG vs IEF weakening; defensives (staples, utilities, healthcare) in leadership vs cyclicals and growth.
A higher chance of a corrective or heavy week in major indices and in value/growth cyclicals — not a day count, a neighborhood. Leadership often stays in quality/defensive until that cluster reverses (yields ease, dollar pauses, credit stops widening, cyclicals take RS back). Inverse cluster (yields easing, TLT rising, dollar softening, credit tightening, IWM and QQQ participating with SPY) is the expansion neighborhood: more room for risk assets, still not a buy list.
Conflict rule: SPY at highs while IWM and credit weaken is a hollow tape — the long-term bull is not confirmed. Dollar up and gold up together is mixed (tight money vs haven); wait for one to yield. Do not write a growth week from price alone.
Companion to rates / FX / ratios. Not today’s TICK. Does not rewrite permission.
Question this answers: what stage is the primary trend in — continuation, pullback inside an uptrend, or deterioration? This is weekly weather, not the last hour.
PPO stack: long (21,34), medium (12,26,9), short (1,5) — same sign vs mixed. SPX vs 20/50/200 on weekly and daily. Dow: industrials and transports (and equal-weight vs cap-weight) confirming or not. Breadth by cap: mega/large A-D vs mid/small. Hindenburg as a cluster of sessions, not a single bell.
All three PPO positive: continuation neighborhood. Long+medium positive, short negative: pullback-inside-uptrend neighborhood (tape cooling, trend not yet broken). Long positive with medium+short negative: deterioration — expect more time or price to repair before treating adds as high-probability. One Dow average alone: non-confirmation — more chop and failed breakouts than a clean trend week. Mega A-D up while mid/small roll: distribution neighborhood — the index can still print highs while the average stock weakens; expect poorer follow-through outside megacaps.
Conflict rule: do not pick the loudest panel. If any two of {medium PPO, Dow confirmation, mid/small breadth} disagree with index price, write a cautious week in step 5. Sentiment extremes (VIX backwardation, AAII washout) are overlays — they can raise odds of a bounce or of complacency, they do not rewrite stage.
Listed CBOE tape (optional). House VIX/VIX3M ratio is the tile above. TradingView does not plot that ratio, and AAII is not a reliable TV widget.
Question this answers: given the economic clock, which sectors should lead — is the 63-day RS tape agreeing — and which names in that group are not extended (coil, stoch pullback, fresh 13-week break)? Stovall is context, not a trigger. Ambiguous fit or weekly-compass dissent means mixed tape, not a buy.
63-day leadership vs Stovall templates: bottom (XLF/XLY), bull (XLK/XLI/XLB), top (XLE/XLB), bear (XLP/XLV/XLU). All four fits shown; if the top two are close, the cycle is mixed. Then RS vs SPY: is the same group actually leading? Improving vs weakening: laggard turning up vs leader with RS rolling over.
Clean early-bull fit plus RS agreement: growth/cyclicals have a tailwind — that is where next week's watchlist lives, not a license to chase. Late-cycle / defensive leadership (staples, utilities, healthcare, sometimes energy) while the index is still high: rotation neighborhood — expect leadership to stay defensive until cyclicals take RS back. Laggard turning up: candidate group for next week. Leader with rolling RS: expect mean-reversion / money leaving that group, not a chase.
Conflict rule: if step 2 weather says tightening/defensive but Stovall still prints a clean bull, the clock and the tape disagree — wait; do not invent a stage. A coil does not upgrade GATED. Names here are a monitor list; Stock Analysis (step 6) is still the desk. This is still the slow map.
Question this answers: in one sentence, what neighborhood did steps 1–4 write — then how aggressive is this session allowed to be inside that neighborhood?
Write the weekly sentence first: permission (FULL/GATED) + weather (expansion vs tightening) + stage (continuation / pullback / deterioration) + leadership (which groups). Then Today's Market Read and Three Scenarios as session overlay only — pullback vs correction vs chop as sizing language, not a prediction. Desks (swing / scalp / small-cap) after that sentence exists.
A green open does not upgrade a GATED or tightening week. A weak open does not cancel a confirmed continuation stack by itself. Use the session read to choose pace (aggressive / cautious / cash) inside the weekly neighborhood.
Conflict rule: the daily overlay never overrides the weekly gate. Names already live on rotation (step 4). Stock Analysis is the desk, not this tape.
Position GATED does not close swing or day. These lights are those books, not a CAN SLIM buy.
Question this answers: which book is open — position, swing, or day — and which names from step 4 go to that desk? Same list. Not a second catalog.
Position GATED means no new CAN SLIM breakout size. Swing and day can still be open if year/week/day say so. The orange button is the open book — then Deep Analysis or Strategy Scanner with that book, not the whole universe.
Sympathy names with falling RS fail more often even in a leading group. A 13-week clear while position is GATED is a chase, not a new core book. A coil in a leading group is the swing harvest — size as dip-hold, kill under the 50-day.
Question this answers: do open names still belong in this week's neighborhood, or has rotation left them?
Each open vs the weekly sentence from steps 1–4: still in a leading or improving group, or RS rolling while defensives/other groups take the tape?
Names left behind by rotation often need management even if the index is still green. That is interpretation of leadership, not a new referee call.