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MacroRisk Factors

The 18 MacroRisk Factors used in Eta Analysis are the key to relating the overall economy to individual stocks, mutual funds, and indices. For more information about each factor and historical graphs, click the name of the factor you would like to know more about. Or, for more information about the Eta Analysis model and how the 18 Factors were selected, please click here.

Current Economic Status

This useful graph gives you a snapshot of this week's economy. Each of our 18 MacroRisk Factors has a corresponding bar on the graph; these bars signal whether the value of each Factors is higher or lower than normal. If the bar sits on top of the line, the value is higher than average, if the bar hangs down from the line, the value is lower than average.

In general, MacroRisk Factors change slowly or not at all from week to week. Occasionally, however, one or two of them will jump far more than they have in the recent past: these kinds of economic shifts generally lead to changes in price for certain investments. Specifically, significant changes in a MacroRisk Factor tend to lead to price changes in investments with high Eta Measures for that variable. For instance, if the Unemployment Rate increases dramatically, stocks with a highly positive Eta Measure for that MacroRisk Factor will tend to increase in price, while stocks with a corresponding highly negative Eta Measure will tend to decrease in price.

On the graph, any MacroRisk Factors that are inside the green zone are behaving normally. These are colored blue. (In technical language, blue MacroRisk Factors are within 2 standard deviations of their average value computed from the previous year of data with a three-month lag.) You generally don't need to worry about these. It's good to know, however, that the closer the bar is to the edge of the green "normal" zone, the more it has been changing recently.

If a Factor goes up or down significantly, the bar crosses the green boundary line and turns red. Red MacroRisk Factors tell you to keep an eye on your investments: they may be impacted by this economic change. To see whether your investments are impacted by a particular MacroRisk Factor, check out our exclusive MacroRisk Profile Reports, now available to subscribed users.