# How to read signaldaemon's signals (no black box)

Most sentiment tools hand your agent a number with no way to judge it. signaldaemon
ships two derived signals plus an honesty rule. Here's what each means, what moves
it, and how to read it.

## Signal 01 — Narrative Strength (= cross-source convergence)

How many independent, trust-weighted sources are converging on the same story right
now. A single headline is noise; corroboration by many independent sources is a
narrative — and it's hard to fake.

**What moves it (inputs, not the recipe):**
- Independent source count — distinct sources carrying the story (clustered, not one outlet repeated)
- Source trust-weighting — sources aren't equal; a trusted source counts for more
- Recency — recently corroborated weighs more than stale
- Cross-domain breadth — a story spanning several of our ~14 domains is structurally stronger

**How to read it:** higher = more corroborated by independent trusted sources now;
rising `momentum.members_24h` = accelerating. NOT a social-mention count, NOT a price
prediction. (We publish the factors, not the weights or source list — enough to
interpret, not to reproduce or game.)

## Signal 02 — Capital Divergence (narrative vs price, two signed axes)

Two independent signed axes, never inferred from each other:
- `direction` ∈ up/down — the asset's absolute 7d move
- `vs_market` ∈ outperform/underperform — relative to `market_7d` (in every payload)

**How to read it:** in a crash an asset can be `direction=down` AND
`vs_market=outperform` — it fell slower than the market = relative strength, not a
bullish move. Report both. `narrative_no_flow` = strong story, capital not following;
`narrative_price_aligned` = matched by capital.

**Honest status:** we treat divergence as a *structured observation, not a proven
trading edge*. We're backtesting whether divergence shifts precede forward returns,
controlling for price momentum, before claiming predictive power. Use it as context
and risk-framing, not a buy/sell signal — until the evidence is in (we'll publish it
either way).

## The rule — fail safe

When a narrative has no single tradeable asset, the payload says `no_asset` — we
report the story, never invent a ticker. Thin coverage says `coverage: "thin"`. A
trustworthy signal tells you what it doesn't know; a tool that always emits a number
is hiding its gaps.

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Pull as structured data: https://signaldaemon.com/api · Live: https://signaldaemon.com/narratives