✨ The Research tab is where you'll find the unique investment approaches our analysts use to read the market. Today it's home to the Market Sentiment view, with more views on the way.

The Market Sentiment view is powered by the new Tactical Tilt indicator, which measures the pressure building underneath prices — how many stocks are actually bullish versus bearish, how fast that balance is shifting, and how much turbulence is in the air. Pick the broad market or any sector, and get a single, at-a-glance read on the kind of environment you're investing in.

🔒 Who Can Use the Research Tab

The Research tab is available exclusively to members of the following Chaikin Analytics subscriptions:

• Chaikin's PowerTactics
• Power Gauge Pro Platinum
• The Chaikin Trust

If you don't see Research in your navigation, your current plan doesn't include it. Call our Customer Support team at 1-877-697-6783 to learn about upgrading.

🌤️ What Market Sentiment Tells You

The Tactical Tilt indicator works like a weather barometer for the stock market. Instead of just looking at whether prices went up or down, it measures the underlying pressure in the market:

• How many stocks are actually bullish versus bearish
• How fast that balance is shifting
• How much turbulence (volatility) is in the air

When conditions are calm and more stocks are participating on the upside, it's a signal that pullbacks are likely buying opportunities. When pressure is breaking down and the market's own trend turns lower at the same time, it's a signal to slow down, size positions smaller, and protect capital.

It won't tell you exactly when to buy or sell — but it tells you what kind of environment you're investing in, so you're not caught off guard by a storm that was building quietly underneath a market that still looked calm on the surface.

💡 Tip: Use Market Sentiment as your first stop before you dig into individual names. Get a read on the overall backdrop — and the specific sector you're interested in — before you commit capital.

🧭 How to Open the Research Tab

Click Research in the top navigation bar. The page opens on the Market Sentiment view with SPY (the broad market) loaded by default. From there, pick any sector from the list on the left to change what you're looking at.

👀 What You'll See

The Market Sentiment view is laid out in three areas:

Select a market or sector (left)

The Select an ETF list on the left lets you choose what to analyze: SPY for the broad market, or any of the 11 SPDR Sector ETFs (Energy, Technology, Financials, Health Care, Real Estate, Industrials, Utilities, Consumer Staples, Communication Services, Materials, and Consumer Discretionary). Each row shows the ETF's rating, current price, and daily % change. Click any symbol to load it.

The Tilt chart (center)

The main chart shows the story for whatever you've selected:

• Top chart — the price of the selected symbol, with the Tactical Tilt history plotted underneath and the standard Chaikin LT Trend overlaid on price.
• Lower chart — three supporting indicators:
  • Cumulative Money Flow
  • Relative Strength vs. SPY
  • Volatility (optional — off by default)

📊 Cumulative Money Flow is not the same as Chaikin Money Flow. Cumulative Money Flow is a weighted average of the Money Flow across all of the ETF's underlying holdings — a look inside the fund — rather than the Money Flow of the ETF itself.

Use the controls above the chart to change the timeframe, toggle cursor lock, and open the Indicators menu. Click the symbol name in the chart header to jump straight to that symbol's Power Gauge Rating tab for a deeper look.

The Tilt Rating panel (right)

The panel on the right gives you today's read at a glance:

• Tactical Tilt score for the selected symbol, with a Positive / Neutral / Negative badge and whether the score is trending up or down versus its 21-day EMA.
• Momentum — reflects the closing price relative to the LT Trend (is price above or below its long-term trend?).
• Money Flow — a plain-language read on the 5-day average Cumulative Money Flow (accumulation vs. distribution).
• Rel. Strength — whether the symbol is outperforming or underperforming the broad market.

⚙️ Turning Indicators On and Off

Every indicator in the lower chart can be toggled on or off from the Indicators menu above the chart.

• Volatility is off by default — turn it on from the Indicators menu when you want to see how much turbulence is in the market.
• Cumulative Money Flow and Relative Strength can each be switched on or off from the same menu.

💡 How to Read the Tactical Tilt

Put the pieces together for a quick sense of the environment:

• Positive tilt, rising, with upward momentum and positive money flow → a healthy, participating market. Pullbacks are more likely to be buying opportunities.
• Negative tilt, falling, with price below its LT Trend → pressure is breaking down. A signal to slow down, size positions smaller, and protect capital.
• Neutral or mixed signals → the barometer is unsettled. Watch for the tilt and momentum to agree before leaning heavily in either direction.

💡 Tip: Check the broad market (SPY) first, then check the specific sector you're trading. When both point the same way, the signal is stronger.

🧮 How the Tactical Tilt Score Is Calculated

The Tactical Tilt distills three things into a single reading on a 0–100 scale:

• Market breadth (a bull-bear "census") — Using each stock's Power Gauge Rating, the indicator counts how many stocks are bullish versus bearish (neutral stocks are ignored) and compares the two. This measures how many stocks are actually participating — something the cap-weighted index can't tell you.
• Rate of change — How fast that bull-bear balance is shifting, not just where it sits. A high reading that's falling fast reads very differently from a low reading that's rising off a bottom.
• Volatility — Wider, expanding ranges signal turbulence, which typically accompanies downside pressure.

A reading of 30 or below is considered bearish territory.

⚠️ The two-condition warning: Because any single instrument can give a false reading, a market warning takes two things at once — (1) the Tactical Tilt score drops below 30, and (2) SPY trades below its long-term trend (LT Trend). When both line up, it's a signal to reduce risk. When the score is bullish and rising with SPY above its trend, conditions favor putting money to work.

📘 Go deeper: For the full story behind the indicator — the methodology, how Pete Carmasino uses it, and the four market "weather" scenarios — we highly recommend checking out The Tactical Tilt Indicator: How to Turn Fear Into Big Pay Days (Available to Chaikin PowerTactics and Chaikin Trust members; requires login). 

❓ Still Have Questions?

Need help getting started with the Research tab, or want to understand how the Tactical Tilt score is calculated?

📞 Call our Customer Support team at 1-877-697-6783 — we're happy to walk and talk you through it!