Methodology

Research universe

The current V36 system analyzes 11 U.S. sector ETFs and 18 U.S. industry ETFs, comparing each ETF's own price position with the aggregated Volume Profile zones of its reported constituent holdings.

Market data and Volume Profile

For ETFs and eligible constituents, the system downloads approximately six months of daily price and volume data. It calculates a Volume Profile using a histogram of daily typical prices—(High + Low + Close) / 3—weighted by trading volume. The algorithm derives a Point of Control (POC) and value-area boundaries (VAH and VAL) according to its V36 bin-selection procedure.

Each constituent is classified using its latest analyzed close:

• Above VAH: close is above its VAH.
• Below VAL: close is below its VAL.
• Inside VA: neither condition applies.

For each ETF, the system sums the count and holding weight of eligible constituents in these three zones. Constituents lacking sufficient usable history may be omitted; therefore analyzed weights may total less than 100%.

ETF's own position and supporting indicators

The system independently computes the ETF's own VAH and VAL, its percentage above VAH or below VAL (zero otherwise), and its percentage distance from VWMA20 and VWMA50. The ETF chart also shows Volume Profile and OBV with 5-, 10-, and 20-session trend lines.

Important: OBV supports chart-based interpretation; it does not directly determine the final Long/Short label in the ETF comparison tables.

Comparison-table signal rules

Sector ETFs are ranked against the other 11 sector ETFs; industry ETFs are ranked against the other 18 industry ETFs. The ranking uses the aggregate constituent Above VAH Weight and Below VAL Weight, respectively.

The V36 comparison-table decision order is:

1. Long (Top1/Top2/Top3): the ETF is in the top three of its group's Above VAH constituent weights and its own closing price is above its VAH.
2. Short (Top1/Top2/Top3): otherwise, the ETF is in the top three of its group's Below VAL constituent weights and its own closing price is below its VAL.
3. Long(X3): otherwise, Above VAH constituent weight is greater than 60% and the ETF itself is above VAH.
4. Short(X3): otherwise, Below VAL constituent weight is greater than 60% and the ETF itself is below VAL.
5. No Signal: none of the preceding conditions applies.

The original algorithm checks Long Top3 before Short Top3, then the >60% conditions. Ties and displayed rankings follow the algorithm in the version used for that run. The website presents existing calculation results rather than independently recalculating signals.

History and timestamps

The history design treats each archived Auto Run or Manual Run as a separate record. Automatic archiving of future runs has not yet been independently verified. History filters—Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, and Last 4 Weeks—refer to run time in America/New_York, not to the underlying market-data date. Manual runs are labeled as test runs and must not be mistaken for official scheduled publications.

The website should show three dates where available: run timestamp, market-data session, and holdings as-of date. The latest successful analysis is not necessarily the latest completed market session.

Interpretation

Signals measure a narrow, model-defined market condition. They are not independent forecasts, probability estimates, or personalized investment recommendations. The published methodology may change in future model versions; any material changes should be noted in Changelog.