How to use ElementWatch

Getting started

1. Pick your lens

At the top of the Today section, select the audience lens that fits you:

Procurement / sourcing — cost exposure, supplier concentration, contract timing
Investors / analysts — price direction, macro linkages, risk premium signals
Industrial buyers — feedstock continuity, production cost impact, allocation risk
Fleet operators — fuel cost pass-through, surcharge formulas, rack-price direction

Changing the lens re-ranks every signal, mover, and material card to weight what matters most to your role.

2. Read Today's brief

The three cards in Today are the highest-ranked developments across all signals and news, scored by severity, breadth (how many materials are affected), recency, and source credibility. Each card shows what changed, why it matters, the recommended action, what to watch next, and confidence level.

3. Drill into a material

Tap any material chip, signal card, or material grid card to open the full detail view. You'll see the live price or signal direction, dominant supplier, exposed industries, action window, and linked news — all pre-filtered to that material.

4. Use the Impact calculator

Each material detail view includes a free "Impact to me" calculator. Enter your annual spend in that material and get a directional 12-month cost-exposure delta (lower / likely / upper band). Your spend value is saved locally — it persists across visits without an account.

Data sources

ElementWatch pulls live price data from two institutional sources. Both are free-tier APIs with government or commercial backing.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

All fuel prices — diesel (ULSD), crude (WTI, Brent), natural gas (Henry Hub), jet fuel, heating oil, gasoline, and propane — come from the EIA Open Data API. EIA is the official statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. All series are daily spot prices sourced from active wholesale markets (Gulf Coast, NY Harbor, Mont Belvieu). Data is free, unrevised, and authoritative. eia.gov/opendata

MetalpriceAPI

Live spot prices for critical metals — copper, aluminum, cobalt, lithium, gallium, neodymium, and tellurium — are sourced from MetalpriceAPI, which aggregates daily spot data from commercial sources and financial markets globally. This gives ElementWatch institutional-grade metal pricing that was previously accessible only through Bloomberg Terminal or Reuters Eikon. metalpriceapi.com

Why spot prices — not contract prices

Most commodity pricing your suppliers quote is based on contract prices: negotiated rates locked in for a quarter, a year, or longer. Contract prices are useful for budgeting, but they are backward-looking by design. By the time a contract reprices, the market has already moved.

Spot prices reflect what buyers and sellers are willing to trade for right now — today's supply conditions, current geopolitical risk, this week's inventory data. Spot prices lead contract prices by weeks to months. A fleet operator watching spot diesel can see a cost spike coming before it hits their fuel card statement. A procurement team tracking spot copper knows when to accelerate a contract negotiation or lock in pricing — before their supplier does.

For operational decision-making — timing purchases, reviewing surcharge formulas, flagging budget risk — spot prices are the only prices that are current enough to be useful. ElementWatch uses spot prices exclusively for this reason.

Signals — two tracking modes

ElementWatch tracks materials in one of two modes depending on whether a reliable live price benchmark exists.

Price modeFuels & Key Metals

Used for fuels and metals with liquid daily spot markets. A live price benchmark is displayed (e.g., ULSD diesel spot in $/gal, copper spot in $/lb, Henry Hub in $/MMBtu). The 7-day percent move is shown and updates daily. A price signal is considered "moved" when the 7-day change exceeds 1.5%.

Signal & policy watch modeRare Earths / Specialty Gases

Used for materials without a liquid public price benchmark (rare earths, specialty gases, some critical minerals). Instead of a price, you see a direction label (e.g., "tightening", "policy-watch", "stable") and a signal strength score 1–5. A signal is considered "moved" when strength changes by any integer step.

Signal strength & severity levels

Every signal and news item carries a severity label. For signals, severity maps to a 1–5 strength score. For news, it reflects the potential operational impact of the story.

Critical (5)

Active disruption or confirmed export ban/embargo. Immediate cost or continuity impact. Requires urgent sourcing review and contingency action within days.

High (4)

Significant price move, policy tightening, or supply shock in progress. Elevated risk to cost or availability within the current quarter. Review contracts and surcharge formulas now.

Medium (3)

Notable direction change or policy development. Likely to affect cost in the next 30–90 days if the trend holds. Add to your monthly sourcing review agenda.

Low (2)

Minor movement or background news. Relevant for awareness but unlikely to require immediate action. Watch for escalation.

Watch (1)

Baseline monitoring state. No unusual movement detected. Signal is live but stable. Review on your normal cycle.

Material categories

Fuels

Diesel/ULSD, crude oil/shipping, jet fuel, heating oil/distillates, and propane/LPG. Price-mode signals benchmarked to US markets (EIA, NYMEX/COMEX). Direct cost pass-through to freight, fleet, and field operations.

Power & Gas

Natural gas and LNG. Henry Hub is the primary US benchmark. Export pull from LNG terminals and storage levels drive domestic volatility. Industrial feedstock and utilities exposure.

Specialty Gases

Helium, neon, xenon. Thin byproduct markets with concentrated supply. Allocation risk is the primary concern — disruptions move prices far faster than for commodity gases. Critical for semiconductor, medical, and aerospace.

Critical Materials

Gallium, germanium, graphite, silicon carbide, tellurium, iridium, copper, lithium, cobalt, aluminum. Materials facing active export controls, supply concentration risk, or electrification-driven demand surges. Copper, aluminum, cobalt, lithium, gallium, neodymium, and tellurium carry live daily spot prices sourced from MetalpriceAPI. Most are under US and EU critical materials designation.

Rare Earths

Neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, yttrium. Chinese processing dominance (85–95%) makes policy signals the primary risk indicator. NdPr magnet grades are most exposed to EV and wind-turbine demand cycles.

Fertilizer Inputs

Urea, potash, ammonia. Natural-gas linked (urea and ammonia); sanctions-sensitive (potash — Belarus/Russia). Signals are timed to US planting seasons. Relevant to agriculture, food processing, and chemical manufacturing.

Freight & Shipping

News and shock events tied to chokepoints (Suez, Hormuz, Red Sea), trucking, tanker rates, and port congestion. These affect delivered cost for nearly every material on the platform.

Field definitions

Why it mattersPro

AI-synthesized explanation of the operational relevance of this signal to cost, continuity, or procurement timing. Connects the signal to downstream impact for your industry. Available on Pro tier and above.

Operator actionPro

A concrete recommended action — review contracts, lock in pricing, qualify alternates, etc. — derived from the current signal state and material risk profile. Pro tier.

Watch nextPro

What to monitor for signal continuation or reversal. Specific indicators, data releases, or geopolitical events relevant to this material. Pro tier.

Confidence

How reliable the current signal assessment is. High = multiple corroborating sources; Medium = standard inference; Low = limited data, high uncertainty. Free and Pro.

Signal strength (1–5)

Numeric severity score for signal-mode materials. 1 = stable/watch; 3 = medium pressure; 5 = critical disruption. Maps to the color-coded severity labels (Watch / Medium / High / Critical).

Affected benchmarks

Which price benchmarks a news item is linked to, derived from keyword matching. Used to surface the story in the correct material detail view under "Linked context."

Since last visit

The banner shown on return visits summarizes how many materials moved and how many new linked stories arrived since your previous session. Stored in your browser — no account required.

Pricing tier comparison

All paid plans include a 7-day satisfaction guarantee. See full pricing →

Feature	Free	Pro $79/mo	Team $249/mo	Enterprise Custom
Live signals	6 top-ranked	All 27	All 27	All 27
Global shock watches	2	8	8	8
News feed	Full headlines + summaries	Full + AI analysis	Full + AI analysis	Full + AI analysis
Why it matters (AI)	—	✓	✓	✓
Operator action (AI)	—	✓	✓	✓
Watch next (AI)	—	✓	✓	✓
Since last visit diff	✓ (local)	✓ (server-side)	✓ (server-side)	✓ (server-side)
Impact calculator	Directional bands	Days-to-impact + confidence	Days-to-impact + confidence	Days-to-impact + confidence
Material library (27 materials)	✓	✓	✓	✓
Search & lens ranking	✓	✓	✓	✓
Seats	1	1	5	Unlimited
API access	—	—	Limited	Full

Access & subscription

ElementWatch is currently in open beta. The full platform is visible to all visitors so you can evaluate before subscribing. When beta closes, free-tier limits will enforce automatically — you will still have access to 6 signals, the full news feed, the material library, and the impact calculator. Paid features (AI fields, full signal set) will require an active subscription.

After subscribing, your access token is stored in your browser. You can manage your subscription, update payment, or cancel at any time through the Account & Billing portal powered by Stripe.