Market breadth and regime metrics

An index tells you how a handful of large companies did. Breadth tells you what the rest of the market did. This page defines every number on the Market State card, says what a high or low reading means, and lists the breadth events the card flags.

Each number describes one cohort, such as the Top 500, on one session. The numbers are grouped by the question they answer. Participation is on every plan. Volume, Concentration and Co-movement need Super Pro.

There is no combined score. A 0 to 100 blend would average away the picture you most want to see, such as the index rising while the typical stock falls. Read each number on its own, beside its vs 1y rank.

Participation: how many stocks are joining in?

An index can rise on a few giants while most stocks fall. Participation counts heads, so each stock counts once whatever its size. Look here to see whether a move has broad support or rests on a few names.

Advancing vs declining

The share of the cohort that closed up on the day, out of the stocks that closed up or down. Range: 0 to 100%, with 50% balanced. High: most stocks rose. Low: most stocks fell. Example: 72% on a day the index rose 0.3% means the gain was broad. Caveat: one day is noisy. The value is blank on a day when fewer than five stocks in the cohort moved. To see the counts behind the share (how many stocks rose, fell and closed unchanged), hover the value on web or tap the row on mobile.

Above 50-day average

The share of stocks trading above their own 50-day moving average: the medium-term trend of the typical stock, not of the index. Range: 0 to 100%. High: most stocks are in medium-term uptrends. Low: most are in downtrends. Change: the 10-session change, in percentage points, shows whether participation is widening or narrowing. Caveat: only stocks with 50 sessions of history count.

Above 200-day average

The same measure against the 200-day average: the long-term trend of the typical stock. Range: 0 to 100%. It moves slowly, so its 10-session change is usually small. Caveat: only stocks with 200 sessions of history count, so a cohort full of recent listings reads on fewer names.

New 52-week highs and lows

Two rows, New 52-week highs and New 52-week lows: the share of stocks setting a one-year high, and the share setting a one-year low, on the day. Range: 0 to 100% each, though a few percent is already a lot. Even a strong day rarely puts a tenth of the cohort at a new high. How to read it: many new highs is leadership. Many new lows while the index sits near its own high is a classic sign of a narrowing market. Caveat: only stocks with a year of history count. Both are shares of those stocks, never raw counts, so a growing cohort doesn't inflate them.

High-Low Index

New highs as a share of new highs plus new lows, averaged over 10 sessions. The card labels it High-Low Index (10d). Range: 0 to 100, with 50 balanced. Near 100: new highs dominate. Near 0: new lows dominate. Caveat: a session with no new high and no new low has no ratio, so the average leaves it out. The value is blank when fewer than 5 of the 10 sessions have a ratio.

Volume: is the money agreeing?

Counting stocks treats a tiny company and a giant the same. Volume weighs each stock by the dollars traded in it, so it shows whether the money sits on the same side as the head count. This section needs Super Pro.

Up-volume share

The share of the day's dollar volume that traded in rising stocks. Range: 0 to 100%, with 50% balanced. High: buying was broad in dollar terms. Low: selling was. Days above 90% or below 10% are rare, one-sided sessions (see 90% up and down days).

Volume vs normal

How today's total dollar volume compares with the same weekday over the previous 12 weeks, in standard deviations. Range: usually −2 to +2. Positive: busier than usual. Negative: quieter. Caveat: Mondays are compared only with Mondays, and monthly options-expiry Fridays only with each other, because both are routinely different. Early-close days have no reading.

TRIN (Arms index)

Advancing stocks ÷ declining stocks, divided by up-volume ÷ down-volume, on dollar volume. Range: usually 0.5 to 2, with 1 neutral. Below 1: volume favors the rising stocks. Above 1: it favors the falling ones. Caveat: it is skewed (a very one-sided day can read 3 or more) and noisy day to day. It is an advanced row: turn off Show advanced metrics in the card's settings to hide it.

Concentration: is this a few stocks or the whole market?

A rising index can mean the whole market is rising, or that a handful of the largest companies are. These numbers tell the two apart. Check them before you read an index move as a statement about stocks in general. This section needs Super Pro.

Top-10 share of the move

How much of the cohort's return over the last 21 sessions (about a month) came from its 10 biggest contributors, weighting each stock by its dollar volume. The card labels it Top-10 share of the move (21d). High: a handful of names carried the move. Low: it was spread across many. Caveat: it can exceed 100% or go negative when the other stocks moved the opposite way. 250% means the top 10 rose while the rest fell.

Effective number of drivers

Roughly how many stocks were driving the cohort's move on the day, shown as "≈ 40 of 500". The second number is how many stocks priced the session. Low: the cohort moved as if only a few names mattered. High: the move was spread widely. Caveat: compare it with the cohort's size. ≈ 40 is narrow in a cohort of 500 and very narrow in one of 2,000.

Average stock vs index

The equal-weighted return over the last 21 sessions, minus the return weighted by dollar volume. The card labels it Average stock vs index (21d). Negative: the typical stock lagged what a big-company-shaped index shows. Positive: the typical stock did better. Caveat: the weighting is dollar volume, not market value, so it is close to, but not the same as, the gap between an equal-weight and a market-cap index.

Co-movement: are stocks moving together or on their own news?

When stocks move on their own company news, picking stocks matters. When they all move together, the market as a whole matters more. These numbers say which kind of market it is. They also matter for diversification: holdings that move together protect each other less. This section needs Super Pro.

Average correlation

How similarly the cohort's stocks moved over the last 21 sessions, on average across every pair. The card labels it Average correlation (21d). Range: 0 to 1 in practice. Low: each stock moves on its own news, a stock-picker's market. High: everything moves as one, a macro or headline-driven market. Change: against the previous 21 sessions, which share no day with the current ones. Caveat: each stock counts equally, so one name's volume spike can't drag the reading.

Rotation strength

Take the market's common move out, and this is how much of what is left is one group of stocks moving against another. Examples: chip stocks against everything else, small companies against large, energy against technology. High (for this cohort): the market has split into camps, even if the index looks calm. Caveats: it tells you that the market has split, not which groups sit on each side. Even a random market reads about 0.05 over 21 sessions, and that level shifts with the cohort's size. Compare today only with this cohort's own history (the vs 1y column), never with a fixed number or another cohort. For the same reason its dot is colored by its rank in its own past year, not by its level.

Reading correlation and rotation together

If your holdings all sit on one side of a split, you hold what amounts to one position, and rising rotation strength makes that matter more.

Events

The card flags some sessions with an event chip. Each chip shows only on the session the event happens. The thresholds are the published ones, not tuned to scanr's data. Most were designed on the NYSE all-issues count, which includes funds and preferred shares. On these common-stock cohorts they fire less often than the versions you may see quoted. The 90% days and Lowry bottoming read volume, so they need Super Pro. The others read participation and show on every plan.

90% up and down days

A day when at least 90% of dollar volume traded in rising stocks (a 90% up day), or at most 10% did (a 90% down day). Rare, one-sided sessions.

Lowry bottoming

A 90% up day, or two 80% up days in a row, within five sessions of a 90% down day: heavy selling met fast by heavy buying.

Zweig breadth thrust

The 10-session moving average of the advancing share rises from below 40% to above 61.5% within 10 sessions: a fast swing from broad selling to broad buying.

Soft thrust

The share of stocks above their 50-day average rises from below 30% to above 70% within 10 sessions.

Deemer breakaway

Over 10 sessions, advancing stocks outnumber declining ones by at least 1.97 to 1.

Split tape

New highs and new lows are both unusually high at the same time, each above three-quarters of its last 63 sessions: leaders and breakdowns widening together.

Is this a trading signal?

No, not on its own. These numbers describe the market's condition. Nobody has shown that acting on any of them improves returns, and even the longest history here covers only a few full market cycles. Use them as context for what your scans and positions are doing, not as buy or sell instructions.

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