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 |
63.8
|
65.7 |
-1.9
|
Higher volatility, weaker technology leadership, and softer global participation outweighed modest liquidity improvement and orderly credit conditions. |
| Momentum |
67.4
|
70.1 |
-2.7
|
Large-cap and technology momentum weakened, while stronger value and equal-weight participation limited the decline. |
| Liquidity |
63.4
|
63.1 |
+0.3
|
Reserve liquidity improved and credit conditions remained orderly, despite limited support from broader Federal Reserve balance-sheet activity. |
| Volatility & Hedging |
58.4
|
61.6 |
-3.2
|
Equity volatility and targeted hedging increased as dealer stabilization weakened, reducing the market’s capacity to absorb shocks. |
| Safe Heaven Demand |
49.4
|
47.7 |
+1.7
|
Shorter-duration Treasuries and quality credit showed modest defensive demand, while weakness in gold and limited dollar and long-duration support kept broader safe-haven confirmation incomplete. |
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.