Alignment ?How years are stackedTrading day
Session 1 over session 1. Ignores weekends and holidays entirely.
Use when you care how far into the trading year we are.
Calendar day
14 March over 14 March; non-trading days carry the last close forward.
Use when you care about a date – an expiry,
a tax deadline, "the September effect".
Equity years run 250–253 sessions, so the two drift about a month
apart by December.
Average ?How years are combinedMean
The arithmetic average. What these tools normally show – but one
2008, 2020 or 2017 drags the whole curve.
Median
The middle year at every point. Describes the
typical year and ignores the outlier.
Bitcoin's mean composite peaks near +600% because 2013 ran +5,500%.
Its median is nearer +115%.
Y axis ?What the vertical axis showsPercent
Each year rebased to 0% at its own first bar – the only way to
compare years directly.
Price
The same curves projected onto this year's
opening price, so a composite becomes a price path in real units.
Raw historical price cannot be overlaid at all: the Nasdaq 100 opened
1986 near 130 and 2026 near 25,000.
Period composites ?Two independent choicesSampling — Consecutive
A block of N years in a row. A 5-year composite is
2021,2022,2023,2024,2025. Answers "what have recent years
been doing".
Sampling — Every Nth
One year every N, sharing a phase. A 5-year composite is
2021,2016,2011,2006…. Answers "is there a
cycle of this length".
Anchor — Rolling
Counts back from the current year, so the set moves every January.
Anchor — Fixed
Pinned to a year you choose. Consecutive takes the N years ending there;
Every Nth takes every year in phase with it, in both directions.
The two dimensions are independent, so there are four composites for
each period length. Rolling + Every Nth is the same as a fixed
anchor whose year shares the current year's phase.
Other curves
Custom years ?Bull and bear are computed, not curated
A year is coloured by its own calendar-year return: green for a year
that finished up, orange for one that finished down. Hover a year for
the figure.
The reference tool keeps a hand-written bull/bear list, which covers
one instrument and goes stale. Taking the sign of the year is objective
and works for gold and copper too – and on Bitcoin it recovers the
conventional bear years (2014, 2018, 2022) without being told.