Live breadth — S&P 500 sectors
9/11 sectors above 200-DMA (82%)
Broad participation
As of 2026-06-05 · educational, not investment advice
See this alongside every signal on the market dashboard →What it is
Breadth asks a simple question the index price hides: of all the stocks in the market, how many are actually going up? A market where almost everything is rising is broad and healthy. A market where the index is propped up by a handful of mega-caps while the average stock sags is narrow — and narrow rallies are fragile.
There are several classic breadth measures: the advance/decline line (how many stocks rise versus fall each day), the percentage of stocks above their own 200-day average, and the count of new 52-week highs versus lows. They all get at the same thing — participation.
Our live gauge uses a cheap, transparent proxy: the share of the eleven S&P 500 sector ETFs that are trading above their own 200-day average. When most sectors are in their own uptrend, participation is broad; when only a couple are, the market's strength is concentrated and brittle.
How it's calculated
For the live reading we take the eleven S&P sector ETFs (technology, financials, energy, healthcare, and so on), check each one against its own 200-day moving average, and report what fraction are above it. Six or more of eleven above their line is a broadly participating market; four or fewer is a narrow one.
This is a deliberately coarse proxy. Full breadth work uses every stock in the index and the advance/decline line; the sector version is cheaper to compute and directionally tells the same story — whether strength is widespread or concentrated.
How to read it
Broad — 60%+ of sectors above their 200-day
Bullish leanMost of the market is participating. Broad moves tend to be more durable than narrow ones — there is more holding the market up.
Narrow — 40% or fewer
Bearish leanThe index is being carried by a thin group of leaders. A fragile setup: if the leaders stumble, little is left underneath to cushion the fall.
Mixed — in between
NeutralParticipation is neither clearly broad nor clearly narrow. On its own this says little; it is most useful in combination with trend and momentum.
When it fails
Breadth's best-known signal — a "breadth divergence", where the index makes new highs but fewer and fewer stocks join in — is notorious for being early. Divergences can persist for many months while the market keeps climbing, so treating the first sign of narrowing as a sell signal will have you out far too soon.
The sector-ETF proxy is also coarser than full advance/decline breadth: eleven sectors is a blunt instrument compared with five hundred stocks. It captures the big picture of broad-versus-narrow well, but it will miss finer rotations happening inside a sector. Read breadth as context for the other signals, not as a standalone trigger.
See it for yourself
Read: market breadth in depth
A fuller walk through the breadth measures — advance/decline, percentage above the 200-day, new highs versus lows — and what a divergence between breadth and price has historically meant.
Read: market breadth in depth →Frequently asked
- What is market breadth?
- Market breadth measures how many stocks are participating in a market move, rather than just where the headline index is. Strong breadth means most stocks are rising together; weak or narrow breadth means a few large stocks are carrying an index while the average stock lags. It is a gauge of how healthy and durable a move is.
- How do you measure market breadth?
- Common measures are the advance/decline line (the running tally of rising versus falling stocks), the percentage of stocks trading above their 200-day moving average, and the number of new 52-week highs versus lows. A simple proxy is the share of sector ETFs above their own 200-day average, which is what the live reading on this page uses.
- What is a breadth divergence?
- A breadth divergence is when the index keeps rising but fewer and fewer individual stocks are joining the advance — price and participation are pulling apart. It is read as a warning that a rally is narrowing and may be fragile. In practice these divergences are often early and can last for months, so they are a caution flag rather than a precise timing signal.
- Is narrow market breadth bearish?
- Narrow breadth is a sign of fragility rather than an outright bearish trigger. A market carried by a handful of leaders has less underneath it, so it is more vulnerable if those leaders falter. But narrow markets can keep rising for a long time, so breadth is best used alongside trend and momentum signals, not on its own.
Keep going
- Golden cross & death cross →
- Fear & greed →
- Where the market sits today →
- See what mistiming the market actually costs →
Educational, not investment advice. No signal predicts the future, and no single reading is a buy or sell instruction — this is a structured way to understand what each timing signal is actually telling you.