A personal markets briefing is a daily email built around your own watchlist: where your stocks, ETFs, crypto and currencies stand, the economic readings that matter to them, and the news behind the moves, from sources you choose, at the hour you choose. Unlike a market newsletter written for everyone, it covers what you hold and skips what you don't.
Mass-market market newsletters are good at the headline numbers and the three stories everyone is talking about. They can't know that you hold a semiconductor supplier, a handful of altcoins and a euro savings account. This guide builds a personal briefing in Avos step by step: the sections, the data behind each one, when an alert does the job better, and the limits worth knowing before you rely on it. Market data may be delayed, and nothing here, or in your briefing, is investment advice.
What goes into a personal markets briefing?
Most good markets briefings have the same five parts, in roughly this order:
- Your watchlist. Each stock, ETF, crypto, currency pair and commodity you follow, with its price and change on the day.
- The economy. The handful of indicators that move your holdings: rates, Treasury yields, inflation, jobs.
- Your companies. News about the specific companies and funds you hold, not the whole market.
- The big picture. Central banks, policy and the macro story, from primary sources where possible.
- Crypto, if you hold it. Prices are only half the story; the other half is the protocol, policy and flows news behind them.
Two optional extras: your portfolio, valued in every issue, and a short written wrap that ties the day together.
How do you build one with Avos?
There are two ways to start. The quickest is a ready-made edition: the Markets & Investing template covers where markets closed, the earnings that matter and what the central banks did, and the Crypto template covers prices, flows and the protocol and policy news behind them. Each template page shows a real, recent issue, so you can read one before you use it.
The other way is to describe what you want to Avos's AI editor in a sentence or two, the way you would brief an assistant:
Weekdays at 6:30 New York time. Track NVDA, MSFT, TSM, SPY, gold, EUR/USD and bitcoin. Add inflation, the 10-year yield and the odds of a Fed cut. Then earnings news for my three stocks, what the Fed and the ECB said, and the crypto stories that moved prices.
The editor turns that into sections, each with its own sources. A briefing built from that message could look like this:
| Section | Type | Sources | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watchlist | Financial | Alpha Vantage for stocks, ETFs, forex and commodities; CoinGecko for crypto | Each asset's price and change on the day |
| The economy | Financial | US indicators, read as on Avos's Macroboard, plus the market's odds of a Fed hike or cut | Each indicator's latest reading, the period it covers and its change |
| Your companies | News | Company news feeds for NVDA, MSFT and TSM | Headlines or short briefs, each linked to its article |
| Central banks | News | The Federal Reserve's and the ECB's own feeds, plus a news search | What was decided and what was said |
| Crypto | News | A curated crypto topic, an X search and a news search | The stories behind the price moves |
| Portfolio (optional) | Portfolio | Your holdings and cost basis | Their value and profit or loss |
From there you change it by chatting: "swap TSM for ASML", "make the crypto section three headlines", "add a one-paragraph market wrap at the top" (an AI section that writes from your prompt and can search the web). Each section's feeds, filters, format and tone stay visible in its settings, so you can always read exactly what your briefing is told to do.
Then set the schedule: daily, on the weekdays you pick, or monthly, at your send time and in your timezone. A 6:30 send in New York lands before the US open; pick Frankfurt or Singapore time and it lands before your own market opens. The market briefing page has a short tour of the same steps.
Where does the market data come from, and how fresh is it?
Every number in a financial section comes from a data provider, copied into a table when your issue is built. No model writes the prices. Here is what sits behind each part:
- Stocks, ETFs, forex and commodities come from Alpha Vantage. Stock and ETF prices are as of the latest close, the same figures Avos's public Stockboard shows. Commodity prices update once a day.
- Crypto comes from CoinGecko, also behind the Cryptoboard, Avos's free board of the largest coins.
- US economic indicators are read exactly as the Macroboard shows them: the Fed funds rate, the 2- and 10-year Treasury yields, the yield curve, inflation, oil, unemployment, jobs added, GDP growth, retail sales, durable goods and the national debt, the last from the US Treasury. Each row shows the latest reading, the period it is for and its change since the reading before.
- Fed expectations are the market's odds of a Fed hike or cut at its next meeting, read a few times a day. They are available in your sections and alerts.
- Company news comes from Alpha Vantage's news feed by ticker. Coverage is best for large companies; for a small one, add a news search with its name too.
In the web version of an issue you can open any stock, ETF, crypto or commodity to see its price chart, from one day to five years, with key stats and a short profile. Why this matters for accuracy is covered in where an AI news briefing gets its facts.
When should you use a price alert instead?
A briefing arrives once per edition. Some things can't wait for tomorrow's issue, and that is what price alerts are for. Describe one in a sentence ("Alert me when gold goes above 2,600") or fill in the form, and preview it before you save. A price alert can watch:
- A level: a stock, ETF, crypto, forex pair or commodity going above or below your price.
- A daily move: a rise or fall of a set percentage in a day (everything except forex).
- An economic release: a US indicator coming in above or below a level, such as "inflation comes in above 4.5%".
- A combination: a combined alert mixes news and price conditions, such as a shipping route being disrupted while crude is below $70, and fires when all of them (or any one) hold.
Each alert fires once and pauses, or every time the level is crossed again. Delivery is by email, as it happens, as a daily digest or as a weekly report. Alerts are checked on a schedule set by your plan, not streamed, and stock and ETF alerts read the same closing prices as your briefing. For stories rather than prices, a news alert reads new articles against a condition you write in plain words.
Can you listen to your markets briefing?
Yes, on paid plans. Anchor Mode reads your issue aloud like a news anchor, and you can interrupt to ask a follow-up ("why did the yield curve move?"). It can look up live information on the web to answer, then offer to pick up where it left off. It runs in the Avos web app, in desktop and phone browsers.
Is a personal markets briefing investment advice?
No. Every Avos issue ends with "For information only, not investment advice. AI generated." Treat your briefing as a faster start to your own research: it tells you what moved and links to the reporting behind it, and you decide what it means for you.
The same approach works beyond markets. If your job is following one sector, see how to track your industry; if you want a general morning email, see the daily news summary email; and to build any newsletter from a sentence, read create a newsletter with AI.
FAQ
Is there a free daily market briefing email?
Yes. Avos's Starter plan is free, and a markets briefing runs on it: each issue uses credits from the plan's monthly allowance. The pricing page shows how far each plan goes. Start from the Markets & Investing template to get a working briefing in a few minutes.
Can one email cover stocks, crypto and the economy?
Yes. One Avos briefing can hold a watchlist that mixes stocks, ETFs, crypto, forex pairs and commodities, a section of US economic indicators, and news sections for the companies, central banks and coins you follow, all in one email at the time you choose.
Is the market data real-time?
No. Prices come from Alpha Vantage and CoinGecko when your issue is built and may be delayed: stock and ETF prices are as of the latest close, and commodity prices update once a day. Your briefing is built for staying informed, not for trading to the minute.
Can my briefing arrive before the market opens?
Yes. You pick the send time and the timezone, so a briefing can land before the open of whichever market you follow, on the weekdays you choose.
Does Avos give buy or sell recommendations?
No. Avos reports prices, economic data and the news behind them, with links to the sources. It doesn't recommend trades, and every issue says it is for information only, not investment advice.