Equities

Quality / Balance Sheet Agent

Tracks whether strong balance sheets, quality factors, and lower-volatility assets are being rewarded over fragile risk.

Utility

This agent must be runnable on its own and must produce evidence that supports a decision, an avoidance, or a confidence change.

Decisions Supported

quality preferenceiblunder avoidanceiposition sizingi

Questions Answered

Is quality being rewarded or ignored?i

Data Sources

Yahoo quality proxy basketiquality ETFsilow-volatility ETFsispeculative risk proxiesi

Current Run Market Data

Label	Symbol	Group	Price	Change	Change %	Status
QUAL	QUAL	quality	220.66	-1.92	-0.86%	live
SPHQ	SPHQ	quality	85.05	-0.27	-0.32%	live
USMV	USMV	defensive_quality	100.02	-0.78	-0.78%	live
VIG	VIG	dividend_quality	240.23	-1.79	-0.74%	live
IWM	IWM	smallcap_risk	295.35	-0.66	-0.22%	live
ARKK	ARKK	speculative_risk	86.51	0.29	+0.34%	live
XBI	XBI	speculative_risk	162.35	-1.46	-0.89%	live

Computed Signal

Name	Value	Regime	Confidence	Source	Observed
quality_balance_sheet_score	43.3	weak	100%	Yahoo chart endpoint	2026-09-08T16:43:43+00:00

Declared And Target Feeds

Source	Status	Current Run Data
Yahoo quality proxy basket	current run	7/7 observed rows attached below.
quality ETFs	target feed	Not used in the current run yet; listed as the permanent feed this agent should graduate to.
low-volatility ETFs	target feed	Not used in the current run yet; listed as the permanent feed this agent should graduate to.
speculative risk proxies	target feed	Not used in the current run yet; listed as the permanent feed this agent should graduate to.

Live Status

Quality/balance-sheet proxies average -0.67% versus speculative balance-sheet risk -0.26%.

Score

Warnings

• Quality proxies are weak; do not assume strong balance sheets are being rewarded.

Signals

Name	Value	Regime	Confidence	Source	Observed
quality_balance_sheet_score	43.3	weak	100%	Yahoo chart endpoint	2026-09-08T16:43:43+00:00