Interpretation
What problem this visualization solves
Looking at a single market cap chart hides two important questions:
- Is the entire basket growing or shrinking?
- Who inside that basket is gaining or losing share?
Market Cap Development answers both at once by separating absolute growth from relative positioning.
What you’re looking at
This visualization consists of two complementary charts:
- an absolute market cap chart, showing raw size over time
- a relative share chart, showing each asset’s percentage of the selected basket
Both charts use the same asset set and time range, but answer different questions.
Absolute market cap vs relative share
Absolute market cap
- shows how large each asset is in dollar terms
- highlights total growth, contraction, and divergence
- answers: “How much value is in this asset?”
Relative share
- shows how much of the selected basket each asset represents
- highlights rotation and leadership changes
- answers: “Who is gaining or losing influence within this group?”
An asset can grow in absolute terms while losing relative share if others grow faster.
Stacked vs individual views
You can view both charts as either stacked or individual lines.
Stacked view
- shows the aggregate size or composition of the basket
- makes it easy to see total expansion or contraction
- useful for understanding how components contribute to the whole
Individual lines
- isolate each asset’s trajectory
- make comparisons and crossovers clearer
- useful for spotting divergence and relative momentum
Switching between the two reveals structure that a single view would hide.
Remainder: focusing on what matters without clutter
When comparing market cap development across many assets, showing every component individually can quickly overwhelm the chart.
To keep comparisons readable, BlockViz uses a Remainder series.
Remainder represents the combined market cap of all assets in the reference basket that are not explicitly selected.
This allows you to:
- focus on a small set of assets
- preserve full context against the chosen basket
- avoid visual clutter from dozens of minor components
In stacked views, Remainder completes the total basket.
In relative share views, it shows how much of the basket is not captured by the selected assets.
Importantly, Remainder is not a residual error or approximation — it is a deliberate aggregation of the remaining assets.
This makes it easier to answer questions like:
- “How dominant are the assets I care about?”
- “Is growth coming from my selections, or from the rest of the market?”
- “Am I tracking leaders, or just a small slice of a much larger move?”
Remainder keeps the chart honest while staying interpretable.
Reading rotation and leadership
Use the two charts together:
- rising absolute caps + rising share → leadership
- rising absolute caps + falling share → underperformance within a strong basket
- flat absolute caps + rising share → defensive relative strength
- falling absolute caps + falling share → broad weakness
Leadership changes often appear in relative share before they are obvious in price.
Common misinterpretations
Absolute growth does not imply leadership
It may simply reflect market-wide expansion.
Relative share does not imply price direction
An asset can gain share while prices fall across the basket.
Autoscaled charts change perspective, not data
They reveal smaller moves but do not alter underlying values.
When to use and when not to use
Most useful for
- comparing growth across assets
- studying rotation within a sector or basket
- understanding concentration vs diversification
- contextualizing dominance and price charts
Not suitable for
- short-term trading signals
- single-asset analysis
- interpreting isolated events without context
Key takeaways
- Absolute and relative views answer different questions
- Growth and leadership are not the same thing
- Stacked and line views reveal different structure
- Context matters more than raw size
How to use
Selecting assets and basket
Select multiple assets and define the comparison basket using:
- total market
- a category
- a watchlist
- a portfolio
Decide on whether to show the remainder of the visualized assets vs. the chosen reference frame or only focus on those assets.
Both charts update to reflect the chosen universe.
Understanding the two charts
- the left chart shows absolute market caps over time
- the right chart shows relative % share of the basket
Use them together to separate total growth from internal rotation.
Using stacked and line modes
Toggle between:
- stacked mode to view aggregate composition
- line mode to compare individual trajectories
Stacked views emphasize structure; line views emphasize comparison.
Using autoscale
Enable autoscaling to remove the forced zero baseline.
This:
- zooms into smaller changes
- makes relative movements clearer
- is especially useful when assets differ greatly in size
Autoscaling changes the visual framing, not the data itself.
Example workflow
- Select a category or custom basket
- Start in stacked view to understand overall growth
- Switch to line view to compare individual assets
- Check relative share to identify rotation
- Toggle autoscale to inspect subtle shifts
