See the Stock Market's True Colors: Live Heatmap & Sentiment Tool
The stock market is a vast and complex ecosystem of thousands of companies across dozens of sectors. Trying to understand the day’s true winners and losers by looking at a simple watchlist can feel like trying to see a forest by looking at one tree. To make informed decisions, you need to see the bigger picture.
That’s why we built this live Stock Market Heatmap. It’s designed to instantly show you which sectors are leading the market and which are lagging behind. Combined with our real-time S&P 500 sentiment gauge, this dashboard gives you the high-level view you need to spot trends, understand market sentiment, and identify opportunities you might otherwise miss.
created by Lyra Valerius
checked byKaelen Monroe
Stock Market Dashboard
S&P 500 Daily Sentiment
This gauge visualizes the daily percentage change of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), often used as a proxy for overall U.S. stock market sentiment. It aims to provide a quick snapshot of market mood:
- Positive Change (Bullish Colors): Suggests optimism or buying pressure in the market. Higher positive values indicate stronger bullish sentiment.
- Negative Change (Bearish Colors): Suggests pessimism, fear, or selling pressure. Larger negative values indicate stronger bearish sentiment.
- Neutral (Grey): Indicates minimal change, suggesting indecision or a balanced market.
The gauge is calibrated to show a full swing from a -2.5% daily change (strong sell-off) to a +2.5% daily change (strong rally). Remember that daily sentiment can be volatile and is just one piece of information.
Data Source: Real-time quote data for SPY is sourced from Finnhub.io
Stock Market Heatmap
The Stock Market Heatmap provides a visual representation of stock performance across various sectors or indices. It allows for a quick understanding of market trends and sector strength/weakness.
- Color Intensity: Typically, green shades indicate positive price changes, while red shades indicate negative changes. The intensity of the color often corresponds to the magnitude of the change (e.g., bright green for strong gains, dark red for significant losses).
- Block Size: The size of each rectangle (block) usually represents the stock's market capitalization or trading volume relative to others in the displayed group. Larger blocks signify larger companies or higher volume.
- Grouping: The heatmap often groups stocks by sector (e.g., Technology, Healthcare, Financials) or by index components (e.g., S&P 500, NASDAQ 100). This helps identify which parts of the market are leading or lagging.
How to Use:
- Use the filters at the top of the heatmap widget (if available) to change the data source (e.g., S&P 500, NASDAQ, specific country exchanges), the period for performance calculation (e.g., 1-day change, 1-week change), and how blocks are sized or colored.
- Hover over a block to see the specific stock symbol and its performance data.
- Clicking on a block may lead to a more detailed chart or information page for that stock on TradingView.
This tool is excellent for quickly spotting broad market trends, identifying outperforming/underperforming sectors, and discovering individual stocks that are moving significantly.
Live Market Tickers
How to Read the Stock Market Heatmap Dashboard
This dashboard is designed to give you a multi-layered view of the market. Here’s how to interpret its key components to find actionable insights:
- S&P 500 Sentiment Gauge: Start here for a quick snapshot of the overall market mood. This gauge visualizes the daily percentage change of the S&P 500. A strong positive reading indicates broad bullish sentiment, while a strong negative reading suggests bearishness or fear.
- Stock Market Heatmap: This is your bird's-eye view. The color of each block shows performance (green for up, red for down), and the size of the block represents the company's market capitalization. It allows you to instantly see which sectors are driving the market's performance.
- Live Market Ticker: The scrolling ticker at the bottom provides a live, at-a-glance view of the price action in some of the market's most influential stocks.
A Real-World Example: Finding Relative Strength
Imagine you open the dashboard and see the S&P 500 Sentiment Gauge is slightly negative, showing -0.25% and classified as "Neutral". This tells you the overall market is flat to slightly down. However, when you look at the Stock Market Heatmap, you notice that while most sectors like Technology and Consumer Cyclical are a mix of pale red and green, the entire Energy sector is bright green. You hover over a large green block in that sector and see it's a major oil company, up over 3% on the day.
This is a classic sign of relative strength. While the broad market is weak, money is clearly flowing into the Energy sector. This insight, which took only seconds to gather, gives you a powerful, data-driven idea: look for bullish trading opportunities in strong energy stocks rather than trying to buy weak tech stocks in a choppy market.
Strategies for Using the Heatmap
A heatmap is more than just a pretty picture; it’s a powerful tool for analysis. Financial regulators like FINRA encourage investors to understand market sentiment, and this tool helps you do just that visually.
1. Identify Sector Rotation
On a day when the overall market is flat, check the heatmap for distinct patches of green and red. You might see money flowing out of Technology (red) and into Industrials (green). This is sector rotation in action, a concept explained by regulatory bodies like the U.S. SEC. It can help you position your portfolio according to market trends.
2. Find Relative Strength and Weakness
Look for outliers. Is the entire Technology sector red, except for one or two bright green stocks? Those stocks are showing strong relative strength and are worth investigating further. Conversely, a single red stock in a sea of green is showing relative weakness.
3. Confirm Your Market Thesis
If you believe energy prices are going to rise, you should expect to see the Energy sector on the heatmap showing strength. The heatmap provides a quick, visual confirmation (or rejection) of your macroeconomic ideas, helping you validate your trading thesis before you risk capital.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How is the Sentiment Gauge calculated?
The sentiment gauge is not based on opinion or surveys. It directly measures the real-time daily percentage change of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), a common proxy for the overall US stock market. The value is fetched from a live data feed, and the gauge is calibrated to show a full swing from a -2.5% change (strong sell-off) to a +2.5% change (strong rally).
How do I change the index shown in the heatmap?
The heatmap widget, provided by TradingView, is interactive. At the top of the heatmap, you will find several filter options. You can use these to change the data source from the default (e.g., NASDAQ 100) to other major indices like the S&P 500, change the performance period from "1-Day Change" to weekly or monthly, and adjust how the blocks are sized.
What do the block sizes in the heatmap represent?
The size of each rectangle or block in the heatmap represents the stock's market capitalization. Larger companies like Apple (AAPL) or Microsoft (MSFT) will have much larger blocks than smaller companies in the index. This helps you instantly see which of the market's heavyweights are having the biggest impact on the day's performance.
Join the Discussion
What are the most interesting trends you're seeing on the heatmap today? How does daily market sentiment affect your trading decisions? Share your analysis and strategies with the community in the comments below!