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Market Check shows a lot of figures on one screen: prices, percentage changes over five different windows, market caps, heat maps, a fear and greed reading, portfolio gains and the day's headlines. Each of them answers a narrow question, and each can be misread. These guides explain what each one is measuring, with worked examples, so you can tell a real move from noise.
They are written for people who follow markets as part of everyday life rather than for a living. None of them tells you what to buy or sell, and nothing here is financial advice.
Reading the dashboard
- How to read a heat map and a bubble map: what the size and colour of each tile mean, why one giant tile can hide the rest of the market, and the questions a heat map cannot answer.
- Price changes: 1h, 24h, 1D, 1W, YTD and the rest: how a percentage change is measured, why crypto and stock windows are not the same thing, and why our figure can differ from your broker's.
- Market cap, explained: how the size of a company, a coin and a fund is measured, circulating supply versus fully diluted value, and why a low price does not make something cheap.
- The Crypto Fear & Greed Index: what the number on the overview is made from, how often it changes, and how much weight it can bear.
Markets and how they run
- Stocks, ETFs and indexes: the difference between owning a company, owning a fund and watching an index, and how the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 and the Dow are put together.
- Market hours, holidays and the dates that matter: regular hours, pre-market and after-hours, early closes, Federal Reserve decision days and monthly options expiration, and why crypto never closes.
Your own lists and the news
- Tracking a portfolio: value, day change and profit or loss: the arithmetic behind the portfolio page, what cost basis means, and what a simple tracker leaves out.
- Reading market news without being pushed around by it: how to read a market headline, tell reporting from opinion, and avoid the trap of explaining every move after the fact.
Still have a question?
The FAQ answers the questions people ask most often about the site. The sources and methods page lists every data source and refresh interval. If something is still unclear, or you think a guide is wrong, write to [email protected].