GLOSSARY
Distress signals
Distress signals are recent, news-sourced events for a single brand — bankruptcies, mass closures, and litigation — shown on that brand's page.
Where the Health Index is slow and annual (from FDD filings), distress signals are fast and event-driven: a brand files for bankruptcy, closes a batch of locations, or faces a notable lawsuit. We track these per brand so a strong fundamental score doesn't hide fresh trouble.
These are specific to one brand. We deliberately do not roll them into a single industry-wide number — closures at a pizza chain tell you nothing about a fitness or real-estate franchise.
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