How equity markets actually trade — concentration, dispersion, options-flow gamma, vol regimes — beyond the headline index level. The vocabulary desks use when the S&P print and the breadth tell different stories.
The tape is trader shorthand for the live record of price action across markets — the real-time stream of prints, quotes, and volume that registers what assets are actually doing, as distinct from the narrative or commentary surrounding them. "Reading the tape" means inferring intent and pressure from flow.
13F filings are quarterly SEC disclosures in which institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in qualifying US equity assets report their long holdings. Filed within 45 days of quarter-end, they reveal long equity positions but omit shorts, derivatives, cash, and non-US assets.
The highest price at which a security or index has traded over the trailing 52 weeks (one year). A rolling reference point for momentum and positioning — current price's distance below the high gauges drawdown severity, and synchronous clustering across asset classes near their highs signals broad risk-on appetite.
Call skew and put skew measure the relative implied volatility — and thus cost — of out-of-the-money options versus at-the-money on one side of an asset. Call skew prices upside protection richer; put skew prices downside protection richer, revealing which tail the market is paying most to hedge.
The capex bid is the equity-market premium accruing to companies positioned as beneficiaries of a large, durable capital-spending cycle — in 2025 overwhelmingly the AI infrastructure buildout. It denotes concentrated demand for hyperscalers, chipmakers, power, and data-center suppliers, set against the rest of the market starved of that flow.
Capex re-engagement is the resumption of corporate capital expenditure after a period of restraint, signalling renewed confidence in demand, returns, and financing conditions. In the 2025–2026 cycle it is led by IT and AI infrastructure spending — data centres, chips, and power — rather than broad-based industrial investment.