VOL. I · NO. 119 · standardpoorly.comTHU · MAY 28 · 2026FORWARD HORIZON · 1 d / 1 wk / 1 mo / 3 mo
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StandardmacroSP-5071

St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index (weekly)

Composite of 18 weekly financial-market indicators.

the verdict —
At the 252d horizon, this signal hits in the predicted direction 34% of fires. Mean SPY forward return when it lights: -4.38%. Status: OOS validated. n = 1281. Bearish on the underlying when fired.
What to watch when it fires
SPY

Current state

Latest value · 2026-05-15
-0.74
vs ~6 weeks ago
99%
vs 60 days ago
15%
vs 7 days ago
310%
last 90 observations · 2024-08-30 2026-05-15

The series — full history

Daily readings, every reading we have. Pick a window with the time-period buttons; flip to candles via the global toggle in the masthead (or press C). Toggle the SPY overlay to see how this series and the S&P 500 have moved together.

St. Louis Fed Financial Stress Index (weekly)
-0.7404 -0.1746 (-30.86%) over 1Y
Hover for date + value · Toggle SPY to compare relative move
1.180.61990.0605-0.4989-1.0620212022202320252026
2021-07-23 → 2026-05-15 · 252 bars

What it has historically predicted

On days when this signal fires (deviates 2+ standard deviations from its 30-day average, in either direction), SPY has historically averaged -4.4% over the next year, moving in the opposite direction 66% of the time.

53%
−0.03%
1 d
54%
−0.03%
1 wk
56%
−0.17%
1 mo
60%
−0.97%
3 mo
62%
−2.2%
6 mo
66%
−4.4%
1 yr

Beyond SPY — how this signal performs across markets

Same fire days, different forward returns. Each row asks: when this signal fires, what does that asset do? The big number is the average return; underneath is how often the asset moved the same direction as the signal (50% would be a coin flip).

target
1 d
1 wk
1 mo
3 mo
6 mo
1 yr
SPY
S&P 500 ETF
n=1,281
-0.03%
47% same direction
-0.03%
46% same direction
-0.17%
44% same direction
-0.97%
40% same direction
-2.2%
38% same direction
-4.4%
34% same direction
MOVE
bond volatility
n=1,281
-0.60%
44% same direction
-1.3%
47% same direction
-3.6%
43% same direction
-10.0%
41% same direction
-11.2%
39% same direction
-15.9%
38% same direction
Analyst · 6 moreWTI · Gold · BTC · Copper · DXY · VNQ see the full 8-target matrix with bootstrap confidence intervals.Join waitlist →

Each fire in history — when the signal popped, what SPY did next

Each bar is one historical fire — the indicator's value moved 2.5+ standard deviations from its rolling 180 trading-day mean (~9 months), or for monotonic “days since” indicators, crossed an 80th/90th/95th/99th percentile. Bar height = SPY's forward return at the selected horizon, signed by signal direction. Green above zero means the market moved with the signal; red below zero means it moved against.

horizon:
0 fires · 0% positive · avg +0.00%
⚠ This indicator hasn't fired since 2025-04-11 (412 calendar days ago). Currently quiet — chart shows historical fires only.
−5.0%−2.5%0%+2.5%+5.0%
Each bar = one fire day (|z|≥2.5 from 180-day rolling baseline). Bar height = SPY return over the the next year, signed by signal direction. Dashed line = average across fires.
shaded cell = each row's strongest horizon (green = bullish forward return, red = bearish)“same direction” means the asset moved the same way the signal moved — opposite of a coin flip.