Market Trend & Trading Range

A rules-based playbook for the broad index: the 8/21/50/200 MA stack (long vs pullback vs defensive), index → sector → leading-stock trend alignment, where price sits in its trading range relative to the 10/21 EMA, and the VIX regime. Institutional anchors center on the daily anchored VWAP from the most recent major swing low — the best risk-adjusted read in our 20y backtest — alongside real intraday session and weekly VWAP. Reads that tested at or below buy-and-hold (the multi-timeframe EMA slope checks and the trading-range buy/sell calls) are now shown as context only, not signals. VIX contango reads off the real CBOE VIX futures settlement strip (front vs second month), falling back to the constant-maturity curve when the futures feed is unavailable.