Best US Stocks to Buy, Sell or Hold (Jan 2026)

US Stock Market Recap (1/14)

What does the stock market voting machine say today?

Scroll down for detailed charts below.

Current Market Strength

• Mid-Term: Normal Bull (70%)

  • 284 bullish stocks vs. 115 bearish stocks

• Short-Term: Normal Bull (63%)

  • 77 strong bull stocks vs. 51 strong bear stocks

• Latest 5-Day Strength Trend:

  • Mid-Term: Flat (→)

  • Short-Term: Flat (→)

Market Daily Performance

• Market: S&P 500 Index (.SPX)

• 1-Day Change: -0.53% (1/14)

• Latest Move: Lazy Bear (small change, <1 standard dev.)

• Current Market:

  • Bull Market — 20% change rule

  • Bull Market — 200-day moving average rule

Bullish vs Bearish US Stocks

What is best stocks to buy and why does it matter?

The US stock market is like a voting machine. Every buy or sell trade done by each investor shapes the US market's direction. But how do you make sense of all this movement?

This dashboard tracks price action patterns across S&P 500 stocks, revealing market strength through technical signals like candlestick and chart patterns by tracking the best stocks to buy or sell now in US.

The charts below highlight the number of bullish vs. bearish US stocks, helping you spot short-term shifts and mid-term trends.

With the right insights, you can anticipate market changes before they happen. Let’s explore how it works!

Table of Contents

▸ Current US Market Strength

▸ Bullish vs Bearish Stock Count in US Market

▸ Bullish vs Bearish 5-Day Strength Trend

▸ How is the US Stock Market Doing Today?

▸ Are we in a Bull or Bear Market in US?

Current US Market Strength

We take the latest number of bullish vs bearish stocks and compare with last 1 year data to measure current strength.

Strong bulls vs strong bears measure short-term strength. See next section for latest and last 5 day number of bullish vs bearish stocks in detail.

When the market is strong, both mid-term and short-term strength meters are bullish. If they disagree, beware of market sentiment change.

We use a percentile system to rank market strength by quartile (every 25%), like this:

We have excluded the number of stocks with tie or no signals in this analysis.

Bullish vs Bearish Stock Count in US Market

By ranking the major stocks in the market, we count the number of bullish vs bearish stocks. Here is the chart for the latest trade day:

Next, we zoom into "strong only" to explore the strong bulls vs strong bears at the tail end.

True market strength is a lot more bullish vs bearish stocks. Vice versa, weakness looms when more bears than bulls.

Bullish vs Bearish 5-Day Strength Trend

Track the latest 5 trade days to look for trend direction (rising or falling).

If you currently own stocks, you'll love to see a rising bullish trend. If you see rising bears and shrinking bulls, beware of a trend change.

How is the US Stock Market Doing Today?

Below is the latest daily change in the S&P 500 index. We quantify the latest percentage change as strong, normal, or lazy based on past stats since 1999.

The 1-day percentage change is a single moment in the market. However, relying solely on this number can be misleading. A sharp rise or drop may signal momentum, but it doesn’t always indicate a lasting trend.

Combine this data point with the above current market strength, which is for the short to medium term. A 1-day move shows short-term excitement or panic. But market strength confirms if that move fits a bigger trend.

Are we in a Bull or Bear Market​ in US?

How to define & quantify bullish vs bearish market?

Bullish (↗) means you expect a stock's price to rise. Bearish (↘) means you expect a stock's price to fall. Market analysts define a bull or bear market as a 20% change from recent peak or bottom. Technical analysis experts often define a bull or bear market as above or below the 200-day moving average line.

Let's look at the S&P 500 daily chart for the US market. The chart above shows 2 different ways to quantify the market. The bullish and bearish periods on the charts are roughly the same.

For the 20% percent change method (zig-zag line), the bull market line continues despite market swings. This means none of the interim downtrend is >20%. Hindsight is perfect vision, and the zig-zag line is drawn to perfection. Expect a lag in real life before you realize a bear market has arrived.

For the 200-day moving average method, a look-back window of 200 trading days is used. This is about 10 months of data (around 20 trading days in a month).