The macro dashboard every trader should watch

Single-stock traders love to ignore macro — right up until a Fed meeting or a dollar spike runs over their position. You do not need an economics degree or a $2,000 terminal to stay ahead of it. A handful of free, official series cover most of what actually drives cross-asset moves.

The short list

• Real yields (10y, 2y). The discount rate for everything. Rising real yields pressure long-duration assets — tech, gold, crypto.
• The broad dollar index. A stronger dollar tightens global financial conditions and weighs on commodities and emerging markets.
• The VIX. The market's demand for protection. Spikes mark stress; a low, falling VIX is a risk-on tell.
• Credit spreads (HY OAS). The bond market's honesty check. Widening high-yield spreads warn of risk-off before equities catch on.
• Oil. Both a growth signal and an inflation input.

Where the data comes from

Almost all of it is public domain. The Federal Reserve's FRED database carries yields, the dollar index, the VIX series and credit spreads — updated on official schedules, free, with no licensing strings. That is exactly what a research terminal should be built on.

How to read them together

No single series is a trade. The edge is in the combination: rising real yields and a stronger dollar and widening credit spreads is a coherent risk-off regime — far more actionable than any one line. The mistake is watching them in five different browser tabs and never seeing the pattern.

Termimal's macro tab puts these on one screen with history and regime context, sourced straight from FRED and the ECB — so the backdrop is one glance, not an afternoon of tab-hopping.

Open the Termimal terminal free → Charting, macro, COT, on-chain and prediction-market signals in one place, from €9.99/month.