Using ETFs to read the market
ETFs are a quick way to see where money is moving. Sort sector funds such as XLK, XLE or XLF by 1-month or 3-month performance to see which parts of the market lead, compare bonds (TLT) with stocks (SPY), or check commodities like gold (GLD) and silver (SLV).
- 1M / 3M / 1Y %: change over 21, 63 and 252 trading days.
- vs MA 200: distance from the 200-day average, a simple long-term trend gauge.
- $ volume: average daily dollar volume; higher usually means tighter spreads.
Frequently asked questions
Does it show expense ratios or holdings?
No. It’s built only from price and volume data. Check the fund provider’s website for fees and holdings.
Which markets can it scan?
Three, picked with the Market buttons above the table. Crypto (the default) scans the 250 busiest USDT pairs on Binance. Crypto perps scans the 200 busiest USDT perpetual futures on OKX. Both are free public data and need no key. ETFs scans about 75 of the most traded US ETFs with your own free Alpaca key.
Why do ETFs need a key?
ETF prices are licensed data, so a website can’t hand them out for free. Alpaca gives anyone a free market-data key. Your key is saved only in your browser and sent only to Alpaca. See how to get a free Alpaca key.
Which stocks does it scan with an Alpaca key?
About 600 US stocks and ETFs: roughly the S&P 500, popular growth and momentum names, and around 75 of the most traded ETFs. The largest 135 load first; the rest follow automatically a few seconds later.
Is the data real-time?
Crypto and crypto perps are live from Binance and OKX, on daily candles that start at 00:00 UTC (today’s candle is still forming). Alpaca’s free stock data is 15 minutes behind the market, and Massive’s free futures plan is 8 hours delayed. Turn on auto-refresh next to the results to update the table in place every 30 seconds, minute or 5 minutes.