Directional Flow
Price is lagging. Trend strength is coincident. The change in trend strength is leading. Directional Flow measures level and delta over 5, 21, and 63 days — surfaces momentum build-up and fade before the price reacts.
This week's flow
- Refreshes after each US close.
- Refreshes after each US close.
Closelook vs standard benchmarks
Our functional indices next to the US and global headline indices. Shows at a glance where our theses (AI infrastructure, AI-neutral compounders, agentic winners) lead or lag the broad market.
Watch list
- Refreshes after each US close.
- Refreshes after each US close.
Method
Level (trend strength): weighted linear regression on log prices over the last 252 trading days. More recent days carry heavier weight. The output is the annualized slope in percent — how strong and how persistent the trend is right now.
Flow (our leading layer): we compute the level not only today but also 5, 21, and 63 days ago. The delta (difference) is the leading indicator: positive = trend accelerating, negative = trend losing strength. Price usually reacts later.
Why Δ21 matters. Price is the slowest signal; trend strength is coincident; the change in trend strength is what leads. Δ21 = how much today's trend strength has changed over the last 21 trading days (about a month). A stock making new highs while Δ21 declines is decelerating — the price move is getting tired. A stock still in a downtrend with Δ21 turning up is an early-chance setup.
Four flow states: 🟢🟢 Accelerating-Up · 🟢🟡 Decelerating-Up (long warning) · 🟡🟢 Reversing-Up (early chance) · 🔴🔴 Accelerating-Down. The middle two states are the most valuable — they arrive before the actual price move.
FAQ · from the current data
Quick answers
What does Directional Flow measure?
Two things per instrument: how strong the price trend currently is (measured over the past year, with recent days weighted more heavily), and how that strength has CHANGED over the past 5, 21 and 63 trading days. The change is the point — trend strength usually turns before price does, so a stock still rising while its trend strength fades, or still falling while its trend strength builds, is flagged before the price move shows it.
Where can I see every scanned stock ranked by Directional Flow?
On the Directional Flow ranking at /stocks/rankings/directional-flow/, which lists the full scan stock by stock with its score, rather than the summary panels shown here. Four further cuts sort the same universe differently: the scores rising fastest this month, the biggest score moves this week, the steadiest trend builders over a quarter, and the stocks whose trend is still strengthening. This page is the daily reading of the scan; the ranking is the scan itself.
How often does Directional Flow update?
Once per US trading day, after the close (the scan runs at 23:05 UTC; the page shows the new reading roughly half an hour later). Around 250 instruments are scanned each run: US headline indices, the 11 sector funds, country ETFs, tech thematics, the Closelook indices and all of their constituents.
What do "Long warning" and "Early chance" mean on this page?
They are the two in-between states of the four-state flow grammar. "Long warning" = an instrument that was hot but is losing trend strength — the kind of setup that often precedes a top. "Early chance" = an instrument that was cold but whose trend strength is turning up — the kind that often precedes a base. Both are watch-list labels in a research diary, not trade recommendations.