Bullish vs Bearish US Stocks to Watch (S&P 500 | SPX)

US Market Strength: Bullish vs Bearish

The stock market is like a voting machine. Every buy or sell trade done by each investor shapes the 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 candlestick and chart patterns.

The charts below highlight the number of bullish vs. bearish 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 Stocks in US Market ▸ Bullish vs Bearish 5-Day Trend ▸ US Market Daily Performance ▸ Prevailing US Market Regime

Current Market Strength (Updated Daily)

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 Stocks (Latest Trade Day)

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 Trend (Latest 5 Trade Days) 

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 Market Doing Now?

Below is the latest daily change in the S&P 500. 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.

Bullish vs Bearish Market: How to Define & Quantify?

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 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).