Guide · every earnings report, phase by phase

Metaphases Guide: read the earnings calendar phase by phase

Metaphases is a free earnings calendar and research workbench. It shows when about 630 widely followed companies report their quarterly results, how each stock has reacted to past reports, what Wall Street expects this time, and how much of your own money rides on the report. Economic releases such as the jobs report, inflation data and Federal Reserve decisions sit on the same calendar, so you can see the whole week at a glance.

What it is

Earnings arrive in a quarterly cycle, and Metaphases draws that cycle like a lunar almanac. Each company tile carries a small moon that tells you when the report lands:

• Waxing moon: before the opening bell.
• Full moon: during market hours.
• Waning moon: after the close.
• Dashed outline: the time is not known yet.

Once a company reports, its tile is marked Beat, Mixed or Miss. Tiles with no mark are still upcoming. The main views are:

• Calendar (/metaphases/): month, week and day views of the most popular companies (or every reporter with $1B+ in revenue), with economic releases such as jobs, CPI, PPI, PCE, retail sales, GDP and FOMC decisions inline, a "This week" brief, and an S&P 500 earnings-season scoreboard.
• Ticker sheet: tap any company for its next report date and session, the consensus estimate, its typical move, a one-year price chart with every report marked, the Setup and Compass grades, an eight-quarter trend, peers reporting nearby and the Street view of analyst ratings.
• Today (/metaphases/today): 60-second story cards on the market's mood and the reports that touch your money, each shareable as a 9:16 image.
• Hype Check (/metaphases/check): paste a social post, a cashtag or a company name to see what the business does, how much it swings on earnings day, its red flags and questions worth asking first.
• Watchlist (/metaphases/watchlist) and Compass (/metaphases/compass): track the companies you star, note a "Buy below" price for yourself, subscribe to report dates as a calendar feed, and see which reports touch your stocks and funds over the next nine weeks.
• Retrace (/metaphases/retrace) and Learn (/metaphases/learn): every report this month graded against consensus, and a plain-English glossary for every dotted term on the site.

How to start

Open the calendar in any browser. There is no sign-up. Your watchlist starts with Apple (AAPL), NVIDIA (NVDA) and Disney (DIS) so there is something to look at; star or unstar any company to make it yours. On your first visit a "How do you invest?" card sets your lens:

1. I invest for the long run (Everyday lens): plain English, with trader numbers such as the Setup grade, RSI and volatility tucked behind a "Show trader details" button in each ticker sheet. On a phone, the home page opens on Today.
2. I trade actively (Trader lens): the full desk, with setup grades, RSI, volatility, reactions and every number shown up front.
3. We're learning with our kid: opens the separate Metaphases Kids area and sets the main calendar to the Everyday lens.

Closing the card keeps plain English. If you arrive on a shared link to a stock, Today or Hype Check, you see what was shared instead of the card, with a small inline switch. You can change lens any time from the footer, Today or Hype Check.

Reading the calendar

Metaphases works with a mouse, a touch screen or a keyboard.

Each day cell lists its reporters with your holdings and watchlist first, then the largest companies. A thin bar on reported days shows how many beat, were mixed or missed. Inside a ticker sheet, "Two calendars disagree" means our data feed and Nasdaq's calendar list a different day or session for a report in the next two weeks, so neither is certain yet. "Confirmed by the company" means the company published its own date, and Metaphases shows it with a link to the source.

How the grades work

Both grading engines turn a 0 to 100 score into a letter: 90 and up is A+, 85 is A, 80 is A-, 75 is B+, 70 is B, 65 is B-, 60 is C+, 55 is C, 50 is C-, 40 is D, and below 40 is F. Every factor shows the numbers it used, so you can check the reasoning.

• Setup into the print (from daily prices) weighs five factors. Trend (30%): price above a rising 50-day average that sits above the 200-day scores 90, a pullback in an uptrend 70, sideways 50, recovering 45, downtrend 20. Track record (25%): 30 plus 65 times the share of recent reports that beat the EPS estimate. Momentum (20%, from 14-day RSI): 30 to 50 scores 80 to 100, below 30 scores 70, 50 to 60 scores 60, 60 to 70 scores 50, above 70 scores 20. 52-week range (15%): between 60% and 85% of the yearly range scores 85, above 85% scores 75, 35% to 60% scores 60, lower scores 35. Volatility (10%, from 14-day ATR): under 1.5% of price scores 85, under 2.5% 70, under 4% 50, and 4% or more 30.
• Compass quality averages four equal pillars. Valuation: P/E under 15, 20 or 30; P/B under 1.5, 3 or 5; EV/EBITDA under 10, 15 or 25. Profitability: gross margin, operating margin, return on equity and return on assets. Growth: trailing revenue and EPS growth above 20%, 10% or 0%. Health: debt-to-equity under 0.5, 1 or 2; current ratio above 2, 1.5 or 1; and whether free cash flow is positive.
• Beat, Mixed and Miss: Beat means EPS and revenue both met or cleared the consensus estimate as it stood before the report. Miss means both fell short. Mixed means one did and one did not. When revenue is in another currency or differs from its forecast by more than 12% (usually a different accounting basis, not a real surprise), the report is judged on EPS alone, labelled "EPS only" and left out of revenue beat rates.
• Typical move is the average size of the one-day price move after recent reports, up or down.
• Market Mood (0 to 100) averages six signals: the S&P 500 against its 125-day average, the VIX against its 50-day average, equal-weight against cap-weight stocks, junk against investment-grade bonds, stocks against Treasuries, and the S&P 500's RSI. It reads from Extreme fear through Neutral to Extreme greed, with 60 days of history.

Tips

• Read the typical move with the grades. A company that usually beats can still fall after a report when expectations are stretched. Check the Momentum factor and the Valuation pillar alongside the track record.
• Look through your funds. Paste lines such as VOO 25000 or QQQ 12k into Compass. It uses the top 10 holdings of 25 popular ETFs (including VOO, SPY, QQQ, VTI, SCHD, XLK, SMH and ARKK) to show how many of your dollars report each week, then set the calendar filter to My holdings.
• Run a viral post through Hype Check. It flags a company that is not making a profit, earnings-day swings of 8% or more, ordinary daily moves of 4% or more, a 30%+ run in three months near the 52-week high, debt above twice equity, a D or F valuation, a report within 7 days, and names outside the companies we track. Installed to your phone's home screen, Metaphases can receive a shared post directly.
• Use peers for read-through. "Peers reporting nearby" in a ticker sheet shows sector neighbours whose results may hint at what is coming.

Settings and accessibility

• Lens, theme and tiles: switch Everyday or Trader in the footer, Today or Hype Check; switch light or dark in the top bar; switch calendar tiles between logos and ticker codes in the toolbar.
• AI: AI explanations use a free built-in model (30 questions per hour per visitor), or your own Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini or xAI key. The AI only sees the facts Metaphases passes it and is told never to give advice, price targets or confidence percentages.
• Accessibility: a skip-to-content link, focus-trapped dialogs that close with Esc, labelled tiles, and dotted glossary terms you can tap for a plain-English definition.

Privacy

Metaphases has no accounts, no analytics, no trackers and no ads, and a strict Content-Security-Policy blocks third-party scripts. Your watchlist, holdings and preferences stay in your browser's local storage. A personal AI key travels only with the request that uses it and is never stored or logged on the server. The free AI limit counts requests by a salted hash, not by keeping your IP address.

FAQ

Are the grades financial advice?

No. Setup grades, Compass grades, Market Mood and Hype Check flags are rules-based information computed from historical prices, consensus estimates and financial statements. They describe; they do not recommend. Metaphases never says buy, sell or hold and never sets a price target.

Why does a report say "EPS only"?

Its revenue is in a foreign currency or is more than 12% away from the forecast, which usually means the two figures are counted differently. Rather than call a false miss, Metaphases judges that report on EPS alone.

How does Compass know what is inside my ETFs?

It keeps a weekly snapshot of the top 10 holdings and weights of 25 popular ETFs, multiplies your fund value by each company's weight, and adds any shares you hold directly.

Where is my data stored?

On your device, in your browser's local storage. Clearing site data removes it. There is nothing to sign up for.

Why is a date missing or marked unconfirmed?

Many companies announce their exact date only a few weeks ahead. Until then calendars show a projection, so Metaphases marks the time as unknown or shows both sources when they disagree.