Alt Sector Radar Methodology | The Markets Unplugged

Methodology

Carried forward is not the same as confirmed.

The Alt Sector Radar is a research board, not an engine. An analyst places each name against its sector peers, every board carries the date it was reviewed, and a name that has not been re-examined is shown as carried forward rather than quietly presented as still standing.

Built by Doc
The question it was built for

Alt research goes wrong in a familiar way. Attention follows whatever moved hardest that week, last month's conclusions are never revisited, and a name stays on a list long after anyone last looked at it properly. The result feels like research and behaves like a scrapbook.

The Radar exists to impose a structure on that. Names are organised into focused sectors and assessed against the other names doing the same job, because a comparison across the whole market mostly measures which sector is in favour. Judged against its peers, a name has to earn its position rather than inherit it from a rising tide.

The output is a picture of where analyst attention currently sits and why. It is a discipline for keeping research current and honest about its own coverage, and it is worked by a person rather than produced by a machine.

Four decisions that shaped it
01
It is judgement-led, and it says so

There is no automated scoring engine behind the board, no weights and no algorithmic ranking. Building one is on the roadmap. Until it exists, claiming it would be the simplest kind of lie to tell and the hardest to detect from outside. What sits behind each placement is analyst work against a defined process, described here as exactly that.

02
Phases, because a leaderboard would be a lie about precision

Names sit in one of three plain phases describing how much attention each currently warrants. There is no score, no rank and no ordering within a phase. A numbered list implies the difference between fourth and fifth means something, and on judgement-led research it does not.

03
Absence of evidence is displayed as absence of evidence

When a name has not been re-examined since the last board, it is marked as carried forward. It has not been reconfirmed and the board does not pretend otherwise. This is the single most important discipline in the tool, because a stale placement that looks fresh is worse than no placement at all.

04
Every board is dated and discloses its coverage

Reviews run on a defined cadence of run types, from a light pass through to a deeper periodic rebuild, and each board publishes the date and how much of it was actually covered. The disclosure exists because coverage has run partial in the past, and the fix was to show it rather than to stop mentioning it.

The three phases
Watch-Only
On the board and being monitored. Nothing about its current standing warrants deeper work right now.
Priority Review
Something has changed enough to justify a closer look. A queue for analyst attention rather than a verdict.
TMU Focus
Where the research effort is currently concentrated. It describes where attention goes, and it is not a recommendation.
Where it is weak, and why we say so

It is only as current as its last review

A board is a snapshot with a date on it. Between reviews the market keeps moving and the board does not. The carried-forward marking exists precisely so this is visible rather than assumed, but it remains the fundamental limitation of any research board maintained by people rather than by a machine running continuously.

Coverage has not always been even

Some sectors have historically received more thorough passes than others. That is the honest reason every board now carries a coverage note. Anyone claiming complete, continuous, automated coverage of an alt universe is describing something that does not exist here.

Peer-relative means exactly that

A name placed highly within its sector is placed highly against the others doing the same job. It carries no claim about that name against the whole market, and no claim that the sector itself is well positioned. A strong name in a weak sector is a real and common outcome.

It issues nothing to act on

No buy signals, no price calls, no targets, no ranking of what to own. The phases describe research attention. Reading a placement as a recommendation is reading in something the board does not say anywhere.

How to read it
Check the review date first
It is at the top of every board for a reason. A placement from a recent full review and one carried forward for weeks are different objects wearing the same label.
Movement matters more than position
A name arriving in Priority Review tells you something changed. A name sitting in the same phase for months mostly tells you the sector has been quiet.
Use it to direct your own work
The board is a map of where attention is going and why. It is a starting point for your own research rather than a conclusion you can act on directly.

A dated board beats a confident one.

Members see the full board by sector, the current phase for every name, the review date and the coverage behind it.

See membership plans Read the full methodology
Last reviewed: 27 July 2026. This page is maintained against the tool as it is actually built. When the tool changes, this page changes.
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