Tools and approaches I've found for managing SPX exposure without staring at charts all day

I spent way too long trying to build my own system for knowing when to be heavy in equities vs when to pull back. Eventually realized I was reinventing the wheel when there's a bunch of stuff already out there, so figured I'd share what I've actually tested or used in case it helps someone else.

For macro based signals, marketmodel sends a daily SPX signal (long/cash/scale) based on macro conditions. I've been using it for my core index allocation. On the free side, the FRED economic data dashboard is incredibly underrated, you can build your own leading indicator composite from their data series if you're willing to put in the time. I also pull the weekly AAII sentiment survey which is a decent contrarian indicator at extremes, won't give you precise timing but helps confirm when positioning is getting crowded.

For volatility based stuff, the VIX term structure (vixcentral.com) is free and useful for gauging whether the market is pricing in near term stress. When the curve inverts (front month higher than back months) that's historically been a warning sign worth paying attention to. If you trade options, TastyTrade has solid free content on using IV rank and IV percentile to scale position sizing, which is a different approach to the same problem.

For broader macro reads, Hoisington Investment Management publishes a free quarterly letter that's one of the best macro pieces out there imo. Bridgewater's daily observations used to be great but they've gone more behind the paywall. The Fed publishes the Senior Loan Officer Survey quarterly which is a genuinely useful leading indicator that almost nobody in retail watches.

The thing I'll say is that no single tool does everything. I ended up combining a few of these into a personal checklist I run through weekly. The paid signal handles the daily decision so I'm not overthinking it, and the free macro resources help me understand the context behind whatever the signal is telling me.

If anyone else has tools or resources they actually use (not just heard about) I'd be interested, always looking to add to the toolkit.