"Building the Perfect Pre-Market Risk Gauge"

From MarketBeat:

The Greece-led euro panic has been simmering for a few weeks. And, outside of currency movements and Treasury issuances, there hasn’t been much to shout about recently.

So…here in the subterranean bunker of MarketBeat HQ, we’ve been tinkering with the software we use to track the markets. Our first task was to build a comprehensive U.S. pre-market risk indicator.

Are investors elbowing to chase a hot trade? Or are they worried and moving money into the proverbial mattresses of the U.S. dollar and Treasury bills?

Without further ado, here’s the list of the items found on our “Risk-on” screen, designed to go green as investors get ready to bet the farm on that highly speculative small cap biotech tip Uncle Bob mentioned over Christmas.

Stock Futures: Specifically, the S&P 500 stock index futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Appetite for equities is clearly a “risk-on” signal.

Foreign Markets: We keep an eye on the emerging markets, especially those with ties to commodities, such as the Australia All Ordinaries and the Shanghai Composite....MORE