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US End-of-Day Verdict 26 Aug 2026, 16:00:00 GMT-4

Sector ETFs — End-of-Day Verdict

EOD 2026-08-27 (sectoretf)

Recommendations

1 to acquire · 0 to dispose

TickerNameCloseActionAction Price Where to act — a buy-limit on a pullback or a buy-stop above resistance, not the current price. Sanity-check vs Close: on a held name, an action price stranded above the close means the queued level was set when the stock was higher — stale, awaiting reprice. Stop The risk-defined exit, set below the entry for a long (~1.2–1.8×ATR). A held long whose Stop sits at/above the Close is already below its stop — a stale box awaiting reprice. 1wk Model estimate of the likely price at this horizon — a forward projection, not a guarantee, and separate from the trade's Action Price or Stop. Where the ML estimator is enabled these are per-ticker calibrated forecasts (~80% coverage band) that are refreshed periodically and can drift between refreshes; otherwise they're interpolated from the signal's swing target. Confirm against the settled close. 4wk Model estimate of the likely price at this horizon — a forward projection, not a guarantee, and separate from the trade's Action Price or Stop. Where the ML estimator is enabled these are per-ticker calibrated forecasts (~80% coverage band) that are refreshed periodically and can drift between refreshes; otherwise they're interpolated from the signal's swing target. Confirm against the settled close. 12wk Model estimate of the likely price at this horizon — a forward projection, not a guarantee, and separate from the trade's Action Price or Stop. Where the ML estimator is enabled these are per-ticker calibrated forecasts (~80% coverage band) that are refreshed periodically and can drift between refreshes; otherwise they're interpolated from the signal's swing target. Confirm against the settled close. Rationale
XLEEnergy Select Sector SPDR62.29BUY — QUEUED @61.1261.1259.7362.56 (+2.4%)63.15 (+3.3%)65.73 (+7.5%)Energy is the one place on today's board where a genuine pullback entry exists rather than a chase. XLE fell 0.22% while the Nasdaq rose 1.57% on Nvidia's blowout, so buying it is not paying up for the AI melt-up; the fund's uptrend is intact with price above its 20-, 50- and 200-day averages, momentum improving for a second session, and — unusually for this book — the model's 12-week view sits above its 4-week view, which sits above today's close, so the forward outlook is not inverted. The order is a limit 1.9% below the close at the volume-weighted average price, with a stop 2.3% under that, giving roughly two dollars of expected gain per dollar risked. Balanced against a genuinely two-sided sector debate: energy is rated Hold after a 40% twelve-month run, and 2026 oil forecasts near Brent argue oversupply, while AI power demand and refining margins argue the other way — which is why this is sized to the cash on hand and framed as a four-week swing worked on the stop, not a long-term hold. OPS: adj cv 73 = raw 73 + val_adj 0 (NA_ETF, valuation blind) + bias +0 (PullbackBuy_VWAP n=8, the book's only non-negative actionable buy cell). L1-favoured family. Payoff clears BOTH conventions - 1.46x on Est_4W, 2.01x on Target_Price - the tiebreak that carried XLF twice; AIQ's conventions disagree 10x and XLK's 48x. SE-2 does NOT fire (Est_12W 65.73 > Est_4W 63.15 > close 62.29). Stop 1.16 ATR clears the 1.0-ATR floor. Limit is 0.97 ATR / 1.88% below close and 0.70% below today's low = fillable, unlike SKYY at 2.13 ATR. Sizing: 49.24% x x 20% = ->, CAPPED by (post-XLF-fill) -> =. Risk 259 x = = 0.72% of book. Improves on the 08-26 decline (payoff was 0.57x, now 1.46x) - a changed case, not a stale re-recommendation. 1wk estimate carries the SE-3 low-reliability flag (calib_1w -0.068). L8: action price is the 08-27 settled-close reference; reprice if the 08-28 open gaps >1.5%. VOID if the open gaps below the stop. EXPIRES 2026-09-01 - withdraw or reprice, no zombie limits. · news
XLFFinancial Select Sector SPDR57.88HOLD 591 @57.7957.7957.1158.03 (+0.4%)58.95 (+2.0%)58.08 (+0.5%)The queued financials order filled and the position is held into tomorrow's Fed event. Banks and brokers set a record close in late July on their best month since January 2025, helped by a rebound in investment-banking fees and a lighter regulatory touch, and that structural case is unchanged by today's 0.65% dip — money simply rotated into technology after Nvidia's results. The position is a fraction of a percent in profit one day in, with the protective stop 1.2% below the entry, and it is deliberately being carried through Friday's Jackson Hole keynote rather than trimmed ahead of it: the event is genuinely two-sided, with markets pricing roughly 40% odds of a September rate rise, and pre-emptively cutting a position because a speech is scheduled is not a reason, it is a flinch. The stop is the discipline. OPS: FILL CONFIRMED ON THE TAPE - 08-27 low took out the GTC limit; open never triggered the void condition. @ =; marked =, + (+0.16%). NOTE: the 08-25 limit of would have MISSED BY ONE CENT - the 08-26 provenance reprice is the entire difference between this fill and a 27th withdrawal. direction:none deliberately - the 08-26 buy card carries the grade, this line records the fill without double-counting. ADR-0012 arm check: NOT ARMED (Gain_ATR 0.16 vs 3.0, T12 progress nil, Exit_Warning blank) - no trim. Trail-raise NOT available: chandelier - 2.0 x =, BELOW the recorded stop. STOP UNCHANGED; risk 591 x = = 0.80% of book. Conviction eased = 12 pts, short of the 20-pt collapse tick. SE-2 FIRES (Est_12W < Est_4W) - <=4-week tactical swing, not a position hold. ADR-0019 URGENT: 'trade buy sectoretf XLF 591 57.79' - the monitor reports trades_detected:[] and cannot surveil the stop on a position it does not know exists. · news
SKYYFirst Trust Cloud Computing ETF166.60DECLINED157.80153.02165.77 (+5.1%)170.09 (+7.8%)176.81 (+12.0%)Cloud software was the day's biggest winner — the fund rose 4.2% as Okta jumped 28% and Salesforce had its best day in six years — and that is precisely the problem. The only entry the model will sanction sits more than 5% below today's close and over 3% below the day's low, so taking the trade would mean waiting for the entire rally to be given back. A good setup at a price that will not be reached is not a trade. Re-arm if it pulls back toward OPS: highest adj cv on the board (85, bias +0). Payoff excellent - 2.57x Est_4W, 2.00x Target - and stop is 1.16 ATR. DECLINED PURELY ON FILLABILITY: limit is 2.13 ATR / 5.28% below the close and 3.31% below today's low, on a +4.21% session. 26 consecutive unfilled queue entries say a 2.13-ATR discount is a decline dressed as an order (cf. XLF's 0.03-ATR limit, which filled today). RE-ARM: pullback toward with the printed Entry_Price within ~1.0 ATR of the close.
AIQGlobal X AI & Tech ETF64.54DECLINED64.5463.7765.12 (+0.9%)64.75 (+0.3%)69.31 (+7.4%)Rank one on the board, and declined anyway. The fund rose 2.3% on Nvidia's results and closed one cent off its high of the day, so buying at the model's price means paying the very top tick of an earnings reaction — the exact pattern that tends to round-trip within days. The four-week outlook is only a third of a percent above that price, against a stop so tight it would flatter any trade, so there is almost no reward for the risk even if the entry were fair. OPS: adj 83 (raw 85, bias -2 FailedBreakdown). L6 fires squarely - post-earnings gap-chase, at-market at = close = 1c off the high on a +2.33% NVDA-reaction session. Payoff 0.27x on Est_4W (+0.33% over entry) against a 0.72-ATR stop = sub-ATR artefact. The two payoff conventions disagree 10x (0.27x Est_4W vs 2.77x Target_Price) - systemic finding 2. Declined on geometry AND payoff.
SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF771.10DECLINED771.10767.16771.34 (+0.0%)777.24 (+0.8%)784.54 (+1.7%)The closest call of the day, and worth being honest about: on reward-versus-risk alone the broad index would have been the second purchase. It is declined on everything around the number — the entry the model prints is exactly today's closing price, so there is nothing to queue below and no discount to wait for; the protective stop is unusually tight; the signal family is the weakest one this book tracks; and it amounts to buying the whole market at the close of a Nvidia-driven session with a Fed keynote twelve hours away and limited cash left. OPS: adj 73 (raw 75, bias -2). Payoff genuinely CLEARS - 1.56x Est_4W, 2.53x Target - and the forward is non-inverted (Est_12W 784.54 > Est_4W 777.24 > close 771.10). Declined on the S6 tuple, not the number: FailedBreakdown at bias -2 (hit_4w 0.30, stop_first ~0.6); 0.79-ATR sub-ATR stop; Entry_Price == Close exactly so nothing is queueable; Jackson Hole Warsh keynote 08-28 10:00 ET; only and XLE has the better tuple. If the payoff bar were the sole test this is the second acquire - see systemic finding 2 on why that bar must be written down.
XLKTech Select Sector SPDR188.61DECLINED188.61185.67189.41 (+0.4%)188.77 (+0.1%)203.08 (+7.7%)Technology was the best of the eleven S&P sectors today and this fund rose 3.2%, closing twelve cents off its high — and the model's own four-week view sits less than a tenth of a percent above that closing price. Paying the top of a 3% move for an outlook that has already caught up to it is not a trade, it is momentum with no margin. OPS: adj 73 (raw 75, bias -2). Payoff 0.05x on Est_4W (+0.08% over entry) - the purest instance on the board of the SE-2 lag artefact, which fires hardest on broad up sessions (systemic finding 4). Target_Price convention would read 2.60x - a 48x disagreement. At-market at close on a +3.16% NVDA-reaction day; L6 fires. 0.77-ATR stop.
MAGSRoundhill Magnificent Seven ETF68.60DECLINED68.6067.5968.99 (+0.6%)69.26 (+1.0%)73.79 (+7.6%)The mega-cap basket rose 1.5% on Nvidia's beat and closed nine cents off its high, with the model's four-week view less than a percent above that price — under two-thirds of a dollar of expected gain for every dollar risked. The direction is right and the price is wrong. OPS: adj 73 (raw 75, bias -2 FailedBreakdown). Payoff 0.65x on Est_4W; Target_Price convention 1.70x. At-market with Entry_Price == Close on a +1.52% session; L6 applies. Stop 1.18 ATR is well constructed - the geometry is not the problem, the payoff is.
DIASPDR Dow Jones Industrial Avg535.22DECLINED535.22532.94535.90 (+0.1%)536.56 (+0.3%)541.35 (+1.1%)The Dow barely participated, up 0.19% while the Nasdaq rose 1.6%, and the model's four-week view is a quarter of a percent above the entry — roughly sixty cents of expected gain against of risk. There is no case here beyond the label. OPS: adj 68 (raw 70, bias -2). Payoff 0.59x Est_4W (3.27x on Target_Price - another wide convention gap). 0.61-ATR stop = sub-ATR artefact. At-market at close. NOTE: DIA +0.19% ties out EXACTLY to the reported Dow +0.19% - the scan's daily accuracy check passes again.
DXYZDestiny Tech100 Inc35.40DECLINED30.8528.3235.36 (+14.6%)36.43 (+18.1%)37.00 (+19.9%)The only holding in this book that can actually be valued, and it screens expensive against its own book value. Beyond that the entry is not reachable: the model wants to buy nearly 13% below today's close and more than 9% below the day's low, on a fund that just rose 2.5%. OPS: adj 67 = raw 71 + val_adj -4 (OVERVALUED_VS_RI, MoS -0.78, the book's ONLY non-NA fairvalue row; quality gate F but it blocks new entries only and the geometry kills this first). Limit vs close = 12.85% / 2.09 ATR below, and 9.29% below today's low. Unfillable by an order of magnitude. high_vol tier.
GLDSPDR Gold Shares ETF422.60DECLINED422.60418.43424.57 (+0.5%)410.29 (-2.9%)435.30 (+3.0%)Gold has now run 6% since this book first passed on it three weeks ago — the single most expensive thing it has declined — and it still would not qualify today. The model's own four-week estimate sits nearly 3% BELOW the current price, so on its own numbers the fund is expected to be cheaper in a month than it is now. Recording the miss, not chasing it. OPS: below the 65 floor at WATCH 62. Decline streak opened 08-08 at; now = +6.06% forgone (was +5.73% on 08-26), still the largest single cost in this book's decline ledger and recorded every session. Fails payoff leg 1 outright: Est_4W is -2.91% below the close - negative numerator. SE-2 fires.
Invesco QQQ (Nasdaq-100)NO ACTIONn/an/an/aBelow the action threshold once the weak signal family is discounted, and in any case it is the index that just rose 1.4% on Nvidia's results — the wrong moment to buy it at the close. OPS: raw 65 -> adj 63, under the 65 floor on the -2 FailedBreakdown haircut alone. Payoff 1.15x Est_4W. At-market at close on a +1.37% session; L6 applies.
VanEck Semiconductor ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aBearish label, long-only book, so no action either way. Flagging it as a data-quality concern rather than a trade: the model called this fund a failed breakdown on the very day it rose 3.1% following Nvidia's beat. OPS: AVOID cv76 on FailedBreakout_Down_20D on a +3.10% session, hours after NVDA beat and raised. Flipped from NO TRADE cv0 x3. Est_12W sits BELOW the close (SE-2). Systemic finding 5: the FailedBreakout_Down_20D trigger should be sanity-checked against same-session return - prima facie mislabelled.
iShares Semiconductor ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aNo signal. The model has had nothing to say about semiconductors through the entire Nvidia run-up and through the reaction itself. OPS: NO TRADE cv0, 'Consensus conflict + low conviction', on a +1.95% session - fourth consecutive cv0 print spanning the whole NVDA cycle. Est_12W vs close (SE-2). Paired with SMH in systemic finding 5.
Procure Space ETF (SpaceTech)NO ACTIONn/an/an/aBearish and long-only, so nothing to do. Space remains the one corner of the board with no participation at all — it sits below its 20-, 50- and 200-day averages with weak momentum. OPS: AVOID cv67, Consolidation_Bearish consensus, RSI 40.9, 3.55% below VWAP, price under EMA20/50/200. Fourth consecutive AVOID.
SPDR S&P Biotech ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aNo signal for a second straight session, and the fund drifted lower while the market rallied. OPS: NO TRADE cv0, 'Consensus conflict + low conviction', -0.10% on a +0.72% S&P day. Second consecutive cv0 - NOT the sustained-NoTrade exit basis on the literal-JSON branch, where the book is flat. ADR-0019: the 08-07 branch ( @) is now THIRTEEN sessions unresolved and on that branch is a winner, which per 08-26's finding never self-heals - it distorts sizing every single run. Priority 2 behind the XLF fill.
iShares Biotech ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aNo signal, second consecutive session. Momentum has rolled over even though the longer trend is still up. OPS: NO TRADE cv0, Conflicted consensus (Trend bullish, Momentum bearish), RSI 68.9. The 08-25 BUY-ANTICIPATE at cv73 lasted exactly one day - which is what the 2-of-3 anticipate count exists to catch. ADR-0019: the 08-06 gap-guard card is TWENTY-FOUR sessions open; 'trade skip sectoretf IBB' costs the book nothing.
Health Care Select Sector SPDRNO ACTIONn/an/an/aNo signal, and the fund fell 1.1% on a rising market. The model's twelve-week view is now below today's price. OPS: NO TRADE cv0, Conflicted (Momentum bearish vs Trend bullish). Second consecutive cv0. The full ladder since 08-24 reads STRONG BUY 85 -> BUY 72 -> WATCH 61 -> NO TRADE 0 -> NO TRADE 0 - the 08-24 withdrawal at a limit is vindicated outright. Est_12W is -3.85% below the close (SE-2).
Industrial Select Sector SPDRNO ACTIONn/an/an/aNo signal. Yesterday's board leader is today's laggard, down 0.9% with price now below its 20- and 50-day averages. OPS: NO TRADE cv0, Indeterminate consensus, RSI 41.5, close below EMA20 and EMA50, 2.32% below VWAP. Fourth consecutive cv0. Led the board at +1.09% on 08-26 - a clean example of this book's ~1-2 session signal half-life (pending draft S2).
Consumer Staples SPDRNO ACTIONn/an/an/aBelow the action threshold, and staples were the worst sector on the board as money moved the other way. The model's four-week view is below the current price. OPS: WATCH 56 -> adj 54, under the 65 floor. -1.38%, worst print on the board. Est_4W is -0.73% below the close - negative payoff numerator (SE-2). The 08-24 decline at STRONG BUY 85 is now -2.71% cumulative across three sessions - vindicated.
Consumer Discretionary SPDRNO ACTIONn/an/an/aBelow the action threshold and still falling — down another 1.1% on a rising market, the day after the stop closed out the position. The exit is looking correct. OPS: WATCH 52 -> adj 50. Conviction ladder -> -> 52. Stopped out 08-26 at for -0.77%; the fund has fallen a further -1.09% since, so the stop saved roughly on the 166-share branch. RE-ARM still gated: no re-entry below cv65. ADR-0019: the compounded card needs 'trade buy 166 118.41' + 'trade sell 166 117.50', or a single skip.
iShares Russell 2000 ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aBelow the action threshold. Small caps managed only +0.3% while the Nasdaq rose 1.6% — no broadening in this rally. OPS: WATCH 59 -> adj 57, under the floor. Conviction improved but the label has been WATCH for four straight sessions. Entry_Price == Close, nothing queueable. 0.66-ATR stop.
Defiance Quantum ETFNO ACTIONn/an/an/aOne point short of the action threshold before the signal-family discount, and two after. Rose 1.5% with the tech complex but the entry is the closing price, so there is nothing to wait for. OPS: WATCH 64 -> adj 62. Closest of the four sub-floor WATCH names. Payoff 0.82x Est_4W. Entry_Price == Close on a +1.47% session. high_vol tier. Worth watching if it prints a genuine below-close pullback limit.

Outcome & track record

Accuracy at the time of this record.

34 Graded decisions Past recommendations old enough to score against what actually happened (target hit / stopped out / closed). This is the evidence base — the bigger the number, the more history behind the calls. Click to inspect every one. See the decisions →
-0.068 1-week calibration How much of the eventual 4-week move typically shows up in the first week (0 = almost none, 1 = most of it). Use it to read the 1-week estimates: a low number means prices drift toward the target slowly, so don't over-read a soft week-1.
50 Published records How many dated end-of-day verdicts exist for this book — the length of the public track record you can browse in the Archive below.

This website is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Always do your own research and assess your own risk tolerance before making investment decisions.