Breadth Board

Breadth means how many companies are taking part, not how far the index moved. This screen counts that, from closing prices. It is one of the Market Radar screens in RingMaster, the product Ohey Inc publishes.

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At a glance

• What it counts. How many of the companies we cover joined in the market's move. We cover about a thousand companies.
• What the numbers are. Two boxes show a percentage, from 0 to 100. The other three show plain counts of companies.
• How to read one. Say the two hundred day box reads 62. Then 62 of every 100 companies counted in that box closed above their own average.
• Why that matters. An index can rise because most companies rose. It can also rise because five very large ones rose. Both look the same on the index. This count tells them apart.
• Where the numbers come from. Closing prices, and nothing else. This screen never uses our model, the system that produces our nightly reading on each company.
• What it will not do. It does not say what happens next. No figure on it is coloured to hint at an answer.
• The reference line (2026-09-24). Under the heading, one line states what the S&P 500 fund's own listed options currently charge for the next month, up and down, as priced. It is the only figure on this screen read off options rather than closing prices.
• Now a dashboard (2026-09-25). The screen opens on a dashboard. It carries four figures, a long record chart, a sector grid by week, and a card of measured history for tonight's reading. The table is one tap away.
• The long record. It reaches back several years, further than the short history line below it, counting today's companies the whole way.
• Key difference. Breadth Board reads closing prices. Sector Split, another screen in this set, reads our model.

What it shows

Five boxes from the latest trading day, meaning the latest trading day. Then a history line and a table by sector.

• Above the fifty day average. Of the companies with fifty trading days of history, the share that closed above their own average close over those fifty days. Shown as a percentage. This one moves quickly.
• Above the two hundred day average. Of the companies with two hundred days of history, the share that closed above their own average close over those two hundred days. Shown as a percentage. It moves slowly, and it is what most people mean by participation.
• At a one year high. How many companies closed at their highest close of the past year. Shown as a count of companies.
• At a one year low. How many closed at their lowest close of the past year. Shown as a count of companies.
• Up, down and unchanged. How many rose, how many fell, and how many finished level. Shown as counts, out of the companies that have a previous close to compare against.

Highs and lows are counted. We do not print the names. An ordered list of names would look like we were pointing at particular companies, and this screen does not do that.

The second row: every name we hold prices for

Under the five boxes a second row repeats the same five counts. It counts every company in our price store with a close on the trading day, covered or not. That is several thousand names, and the line above the row says how many. Each box again prints its own denominator. The first row is the covered list; the second is the whole store. The row appears only once the nightly build carries it.

Each box counts out of a different number of companies

Every box shows its figure out of some number of companies. The number it divides by (the denominator) is not the same for every box. A company has to have enough price history for the measure in question.

• Fifty day average. A company needs fifty trading days of history.
• Two hundred day average. A company needs two hundred trading days.
• One year high or low. A company needs about a year of closes.
• Up or down. A company needs only a previous close.

Five boxes, four numbers: the one year high box and the one year low box share theirs. So the four denominators differ, and each box prints its own. One headline count used for all of them would misstate the figures. The counts move a little day to day, as companies with short history drop in and out.

The history line and the sector table

• History line. Pick one of three counts and see it over time. The three are the fifty day share, the two hundred day share, and one year highs less one year lows.
• Sector table. The same two hundred day figure, split by sector. Each row shows how many covered companies the sector holds, and the share of them that closed above their own two hundred day average. The bar draws that same share.

Each sector divides by its own companies that have a two hundred day average. The table is ordered by sector name. We do not order it by the figure, because that would make it a ranking.

Sector rotation is the phrase people use for some parts of the market taking part while others do not. This table is where you can look at it.

The dashboard

The screen opens here now. Four figures, the long record, the sector grid by week, and a card of measured history for tonight's own reading.

The four figures

Above the fifty day average, above the two hundred day average, new highs less new lows, and advancing against declining, tonight. Each one carries a one year sparkline, where today sits inside its own history as a percentile, and the change since a trading week ago.

The long record

The S&P 500 fund's own close against the cumulative advance/decline line, both fitted to their own range. When the two pull apart, fewer companies are carrying the index than its own close suggests. A breadth thrust is marked where the ten day average of the advancing share rose from under 40% to over 61.5% within ten trading days.

It runs several years back, further than the list view's own history line, using today's covered list the whole way. Companies that left the market during that span are not counted on any day of it, even the days they were still trading.

The McClellan oscillator

The 19 and 39 day averages of the ratio adjusted net advances, subtracted. Above the line, advancers have outweighed decliners over the last few weeks on balance. Below the line, decliners have.

Sector by week

The same above the two hundred day reading, once a week, for the last fifty two weeks. A darker cell is a larger share of that sector's own names above their own two hundred day average. Tap or hover a cell for its figure.

How an options trader reads this

A card of measured history for tonight's own reading. It states how the S&P 500 fund and VIX moved over the next twenty trading days, every time the fifty day reading matched tonight's. Each figure carries how many trading days it is counted over.

It also states the same for a narrow rally. That is the index near its own year high while under half of names sit above their fifty day average. Every figure here is history. None of it is a forecast.

The three lines the history chart can draw

This is the list view's own chart, the table one tap from the dashboard. Three buttons beside the chart heading choose which count it draws. A layout does not remember the choice; the chart always opens on the first.

Above the two hundred day

The share of covered names closing above their own 200 day average, as a percent of the names counted that day. The line the chart opens on. It moves slowly, and it is what most people mean by participation.

Above the fifty day

The same share, measured over the last 50 trading days instead. It moves quickly.

New highs less new lows

Names at a one year high, less names at a one year low, as a count of names rather than a percent, not a share. The faint guide line marks zero.

What the history line cannot tell you

This is about the list view's own history line, not the dashboard's long record above. The two are built two different ways, on purpose.

Each night we freeze the list of companies covered that day. The screen's footer states the date those frozen lists begin.

• The recent part of the line, and what it leaves out. From that date onward, each point uses the companies covered on that day. A company whose prices we no longer carry is left out of that day's count. We record it as missing instead of filling it in with a guess.
• The older part of the line, and why it flatters. Before that date we did not keep the daily lists. So the earlier stretch is counted against the companies we cover today. Companies that dropped out are missing from it. That makes the older part look better than the market actually was. This is survivorship: the older part of the line only knows the companies still here. Treat it as rough background. It is not a record.

We do not fill that older stretch in. A rebuilt list of past names would be a guess, and a guess does not belong in a record. That older stretch shrinks by one day every day, as the frozen record grows. We hold the line to about a year for the same reason: drawn further back, it would say less and less about the real market.

Why this is not Sector Split

Both screens use the word breadth. They answer different questions.

Breadth Board carries no model output at all. Because of that it is live on every plan, with no delay. Some other screens carry our model's output and can be held back by a trading day. This one never is.

Using it with discipline

• What it can tell you. Breadth describes what already happened. It says nothing about what comes next. A narrow market, meaning one where only a few companies are rising, can stay narrow for a long time, and has.
• Where the lines come from. Fifty and two hundred trading days are conventions. Nothing makes those two lengths special. A company a penny either side of its average is counted on that side.
• Small sectors. Check how many companies a sector holds. In a sector of eleven, one company crossing the line moves the figure about nine points. A small sector's figure moves for reasons that have nothing to do with the wider market. Sectors holding fewer than five covered companies are left out of the table.

Frequently asked questions

How many companies are counted? About a thousand in total. Each box counts out of a smaller number, because a company needs enough price history to be included. The box prints the number it used, and those numbers move a little day to day.

Why does the list view's history line only go back about a year? The further back it goes, the more of it is counted against today's list of companies. That is the survivorship described above, and it flatters the older part of the line. A longer line would look more impressive and mean less.

The dashboard's long record goes back further. Why is that different? It never claims a point in time list of companies, so there is nothing for it to lose by running longer. It counts today's companies across the whole span instead, stated once rather than changing partway through the way the short line does.

Is the measured forward frequency a prediction? No. It is a count of what the S&P 500 fund and VIX did after past readings that matched tonight's. Each count states how many trading days it covers. A count of history is not a forecast.

Does a low reading mean the market is about to fall? This screen does not say, and nothing on it is coloured to suggest an answer.

Does any of this come from the model? No. It is closing prices only.

Related panes

• Sector Split, our model's sector reading, which is the other question.
• Market Mood, the published volatility and credit prints.
• Market Scan, every covered name with the model's signal.