VMSI™ Institutional Market Sentiment Index
Five Market Forces
Market conditions change before price responds.
VMSI™ integrates five forces that shape market direction, resilience, and risk.
Most investors analyze markets in parts. VMSI™ measures the system.
| Component | Current | Prior |
(w/w)
|
Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composite |
62.8
|
63.2 |
-0.4
|
Participation and observable ETF deployment weakened, while credit repair, duration strength, and lower surface volatility contained the systemic decline. |
| Momentum |
66.0
|
67.0 |
-1
|
Major-cap indexes advanced, but short- and intermediate-horizon breadth, equal-weight participation, and small caps weakened; deeper trend structure remained intact. |
| Liquidity |
57.4
|
58.2 |
-0.8
|
Reserve balances and Federal Reserve assets contracted while a smaller Treasury-cash release provided only a partial liquidity offset. |
| Volatility & Hedging |
61.2
|
60.8 |
+0.4
|
Surface equity and rates volatility eased, but higher tail-risk skew, stronger put demand, and mixed dealer models limited improvement. |
| Safe Heaven Demand |
51.4
|
51.0 |
+0.4
|
Treasury duration, dollar strength, and observable gold ETF creations outweighed the gold-price reversal, producing rotated rather than uniform defensive demand. |
Understanding VMSI™
VMSI™ integrates five market forces to measure the conditions shaping direction, resilience, and risk before they are fully reflected in price.
VMSI™ combines five core indicators with an Advanced Signal Layer to produce an integrated view of market regime. IC-VMSI™ extends the framework to institutional capital behavior, while ICMI™ independently measures where capital is migrating across markets.
VMSI™ is updated weekly using the most recently completed market data.
The Advanced Signal Layer measures structural forces beyond the VMSI™ Composite—including participation, convexity, capital readiness, geopolitical pressure, and regime persistence—by evaluating how these forces interact to distinguish temporary market movement from durable structural change
IC-VMSI™ measures how institutional capital is accumulating, deploying, and positioning across markets to identify where conviction is strengthening before it is fully reflected in price. Because Capital doesn’t have an opinion. It has a position.