Art's Charts

Using Breadth Indicators to Weigh the Evidence

Arthur Hill

Arthur Hill

Chief Technical Strategist, TrendInvestorPro.com

This article will provide links and symbols for some of the charts used in the On Trend episode focusing on breadth indicators (Using Breadth Indicators to Weigh the Evidence). Episode details are shown below and you can watch a recording on our Youtube channel. The idea behind these indicators is to develop an analysis process to define bull and bear market environments. Process is important to analysis because it gives us a framework that is objective and repeatable.

In addition to the 20-day SMA and 200-day SMA for the S&P 500, I breakdown the market using three different breadth indicators applied to three broad indexes and the 11 sectors. These indicators allow me to measure internal strength or weakness in a fairly objective manner.

These indicators and this process are not fool proof, but I am not striving for perfection in an imperfect market place. There is some subjectivity because I set the key levels to watch for signals as well as the EMA periods for AD Percent. Even so, this is an evidence-based approach that keeps me on the right side of the trend, regardless of my biases.


Chart Links:

$SPX AD Percent and AD Line 


$SPX 10-day EMA of AD Percent 


$SPX High-Low Percent 


$SPX Percentage of Stocks above 200-day EMA   


$SPX with three breadth indicators


Symbol Groups

AD Percent: $SPXADP,$XLKADP,$XLFADP,$XLIADP,$XLCADP,$XLYADP,$XLBADP,$XLEADP,$XLUADP,$XLREADP,$XLPADP,$XLVADP

High-Low Percent: $SPXHLP,$XLKHLP,$XLFHLP,$XLIHLP,$XLCHLP,$XLYHLP,$XLBHLP,$XLEHLP,$XLUHLP,$XLREHLP,$XLPHLP,$XLVHLP

Percent Above 200-day EMA: !GT200SPX,!GT200XLY,!GT200XLK,!GT200XLF,!GT200XLI,!GT200XLC,!GT200XLP,!GT200XLU,!GT200XLV,!GT200XLE,!GT200XLB,!GT200XLRE

The image below shows the AD Percent indicators available in our symbol catalog. Simply search for "advance and decline and percent" (without quotation marks). The "and" means each term must be found in the subsequent results. This same process can be used to find High-Low Percent (high and low and percent) or Percentage of Stocks above 200-day EMA (percent and above and 200).


On Trend on Youtube

Using Breadth Indicators to Weigh the Evidence



Arthur Hill, CMT Senior Technical Analyst, StockCharts.com Author, Define the Trend and Trade the Trend


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Arthur Hill
About the author: , CMT, is the Chief Technical Strategist at TrendInvestorPro.com. Focusing predominantly on US equities and ETFs, his systematic approach of identifying trend, finding signals within the trend, and setting key price levels has made him an esteemed market technician. Arthur has written articles for numerous financial publications including Barrons and Stocks & Commodities Magazine. In addition to his Chartered Market Technician (CMT) designation, he holds an MBA from the Cass Business School at City University in London. Learn More