Reading the index cards

Every index card on the Indices page packs a lot of signal into a small box. Here’s how to decode it.

Anatomy of a card

Ticker + name — top-left (e.g., ^GSPC / S&P 500)
Current price — large, top
Change % — color-coded green/red against the active timeframe
Sparkline — the price path over the active timeframe
Percentile shading — background tint based on where today sits in the trailing 1-year distribution
Sigma badge — appears only at extremes (+2σ, +1.5σ, −1.5σ, −2σ)

The “usual timeframes” toggle at the top of the page applies to all cards at once:

Switch the timeframe to ask different questions — 1D for “what happened today,” 1Y for “where are we in the regime.”

The card background is tinted based on the 1-year percentile of today’s reading.

Useful for spotting outliers in a glance — a deep-red card on a green tape is asking why.

Appear only when the reading is statistically extreme on its 1-year distribution:

Badge	Meaning
+2σ	95th+ percentile — multi-month high
+1.5σ	84th+ percentile — elevated
−1.5σ	16th– percentile — depressed
−2σ	5th– percentile — multi-month low

These are mean-reversion flags, not trade signals. They tell you the reading is unusual, not that it’s about to revert.

Click any index card to open a detail view with:

Eye sweep — scan all 25 for outlier shading and sigma badges
Cross-region — compare same-timeframe shading across Americas / Europe / Asia
Click in — when a card stands out, click to see the chart and ask why