Monitoring Situation Index

MSI

One number. Zero to ten. Updated every minute.

The MSI is a live measure of how much is happening in the world right now — headline volume, source spread, market and seismic activity, sentiment. One canonical reading. The VIX for world events.

Current readingloading…

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What the MSI measures

The Monitoring Situation Index is one observable number, from 0.0 (nothing unusual) to 10.0 (a major event dominating the signals), that answers a single question: how much is happening in the world right now? Think of it as a barometer, not a forecast — it reads the present, it does not predict the future.

It rises when the world's public signals move together: more breaking headlines, from more independent sources, turning more negative, alongside coincident market and seismic activity. When those fade, it falls. Every reading is derived from free, public, commercial-use-OK feeds — no private data, no opinions, no calls to action. It is information, not advice.

Scale

0.0 – 10.0

One canonical reading

Cadence

Every 60s

Recomputed each minute

History

Rolling 24h

Persisted between deploys

MSI over time

The rolling 24-hour series, sampled once a minute. The full machine-readable history is public at /api/msi/history. We plot only points we actually observed — the series accrues forward, never backfilled.

MSI · rolling 24h0 samples

History accrues from here — check back in a few minutes

Rolling 24-hour buffer, sampled once a minute and persisted between deploys. Longer history accrues from here — we don't backfill points we didn't observe.

How it's computed

The MSI is a weighted sum of five signals, each normalised to a 0–1 range, then scaled to a 0–10 score. The formula is public on purpose. We show our work. For the full input-by-input breakdown, the 60-second cadence, the rolling 24-hour window, and what the number does not claim, see the MSI methodology.

MSI = 10 × (
    0.25 · volume       // log-scaled headline count
  + 0.30 · velocity     // rate of change vs baseline
  + 0.15 · spread       // independent reporting sources
  + 0.10 · sentiment    // average negative tone
  + 0.20 · cross_corr   // markets + seismic, coincident
)

0–2 · Calm

Nothing unusual happening.

2–4 · Background

Normal activity. Minor stories.

4–6 · Active

Meaningful events developing.

6–8 · Escalating

Multiple concurrent active situations.

8–10 · Intense

Major unfolding event(s) dominating signals.

Inputs

GDELT 2.0 — global headline volume, source diversity, tone.
CoinGecko — 24h crypto volatility (BTC + ETH).
USGS — significant earthquake count (M4.5+, last 24h).
stooq— equity and commodity moves (S&P 500, oil).
AISStream — live vessel positions and shipping-lane activity.

All free, commercial-use-OK.

Input freshness

Reading input status…

Embed the MSI

Put the live index on your own site, dashboard or README. Both formats read the free, public MSI and link back here. Free to use with attribution.

Live card · iframe

A compact, auto-refreshing card. 240×80.

<iframe src="https://monitoringroom.com/embed/msi" width="240" height="80" style="border:0" title="Monitoring Situation Index (MSI)" loading="lazy"></iframe>

Badge · SVG

One-line badge for READMEs, Notion and blogs. Works anywhere an image does.

<a href="https://monitoringroom.com/msi?ref=embed"><img src="https://monitoringroom.com/api/badge/msi.svg" alt="Monitoring Situation Index (MSI)" height="20"></a>

All situations →

The individual events the MSI is reading — browse the full archive.

Today →

The world's situation in 200 words — the story behind the number.

Accuracy ledger →

What prediction markets priced before an event resolved — recorded in advance, with sources.

Prediction markets →

How big the category got — venue volumes and regulation, cited and dated.

The MSI is an observable index of public signals · information, not advice

MSI