# Market Entropy

`D08-F07-A18` · Geometric Chart Patterns → Market Structure, Breakouts, and Regimes · archetype `record-transform` · difficulty 2/5 · verification **verified**

Full page: https://docs.thefintechbuilder.com/geometric-chart-patterns/market-structure-breakouts-and-regimes/market-entropy/
Agent skill: `npx skills add IslamBaraka90/Fintech-Algorithms-Library` — https://docs.thefintechbuilder.com/guides/agent-skill/

## Install and import

```bash
npm install fintech-algorithms
```

```ts
import { marketEntropy } from "fintech-algorithms/geometric-chart-patterns/market-structure-breakouts-and-regimes/market-entropy";
```

## Signature

```ts
marketEntropy(input)
```

Treats each bar as one of three states by the sign of its close change, then reports the Shannon entropy of the state distribution over a `period`-bar window, normalised by `log(3)` so a perfectly balanced mix scores 1.

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `input` | `TopicInput` | yes | `bars` is the required OHLCV history, strictly ordered by `timestamp` and on a single adjustment basis. `parameters.period` (default `20`, integer of at least 2) sets the counting window and the probability denominator. |

## Returns

`TopicResult`

`series` and `latest` carry a single `value` key, between 0 and 1. The warm-up is `period` bars, because the sign at index 0 is undefined, so with the default `ready_at` is 20.

## Warm-up

The first `period bars (20 by default)` positions are `null`. Emission starts at index `period`, the first bar whose `period`-long window of signs excludes the undefined sign at index 0.

## Errors

- When `period` is supplied as a non-integer or as a value below 2 — throws Error
- When a bar's `close` is not a finite number — throws Error

## Complexity

Time `O(n × period)`, space `O(n)`.

## Worked example

Captured by running this function on the input its own test provides. Real output of real code — but not asserted against a published figure.

### Input

`input`:

```json
{
  "bars": [
    {
      "timestamp": "2024-01-02",
      "basis": "synthetic-unadjusted",
      "open": 100,
      "high": 101.45,
      "low": 98.695,
      "close": 100,
      "volume": 750000,
      "benchmark": 200
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "2024-01-03",
      "basis": "synthetic-unadjusted",
      "open": 101.49111452,
      "high": 103.38381693,
      "low": 100.05480022,
      "close": 101.78791214,
      "volume": 795117,
      "benchmark": 200.56326135
    },
    {
      "timestamp": "2024-01-04",
      "basis": "synthetic-unadjusted",
      "open": 102.45519048,
      "high": 104.6701838,
      "low": 100.91147007,
      "close": 102.9549389,
      "volume": 840234,
      "benchmark": 201.11020913
    }
  ],
  "parameters": {}
}
```

### Call

```ts
marketEntropy(input)
```

### Returns

object with 9 fields: topic_id, title, state, ready, ready_at, series, latest, parameters, …

```json
{
  "topic_id": "D08-F07-A18",
  "title": "Market Entropy",
  "state": "calculated",
  "ready": true,
  "ready_at": 20,
  "series": {
    "value": [null, null, null, null, null, null]
  },
  "latest": {
    "value": 0.6263709416065661
  },
  "parameters": {},
  "diagnostics": {
    "causal": true,
    "input_count": 96
  }
}
```

## Verification and provenance

Tier: **verified** (via E).

The worked example below is the figure published in this algorithm's article, replayed and asserted by the test suite on every build. The arithmetic cannot drift without the build failing.

Both tiers guarantee the signature. Full explanation: https://docs.thefintechbuilder.com/guides/verification/

Generated from the docs.json payload shipped inside fintech-algorithms@0.13.0.
The signature and parameter list are checked against the compiled implementation at build time,
so a description that contradicts the code fails the build rather than reaching this file.

## Links

- Article (how it works, step by step): https://thefintechbuilder.com/geometric-chart-patterns/market-structure-breakouts-and-regimes/market-entropy/
- Implementation source: https://github.com/IslamBaraka90/Fintech-Algorithms-Library/blob/main/src/geometric-chart-patterns/market-structure-breakouts-and-regimes/market-entropy/impl.ts
- Package on npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/fintech-algorithms
- Domain index for agents: https://docs.thefintechbuilder.com/geometric-chart-patterns/llms.txt