Market Pulse at 38.5 — DRAINING Regime. Utilities Leads

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We're sitting in a DRAINING regime with a pulse score of 38.5, Chief. That means liquidity is leaking out of the market — not crisis-level, but the plumbing is getting tighter. VIX is reading 0 today (likely a data gap or holiday print), but the 10-day trend tells the real story: VIX climbed from 15.86 to 17.44 over the last two weeks, a +10% grind higher. That's not panic, but it's steady pressure building. Backtests say DRAINING regimes produce +7.7% average 7-day returns on our signals, which is respectable — but the real edge here is patience. The 14-day returns jump to +18.3%, so positions entered now reward holding through the drainage. Today is tradeable, but size down and extend your horizon.