1996issue C031-8
New-high and new-low counts as a breadth construction
A new-high or new-low is most commonly a 52-week extreme, and the same listing idea can be rebuilt with other lookbacks. Daily and weekly series differ in extremes and volatility even when their trends move together. The raw counts can be recast as a differential, a ratio, a cumulative line, or a short-horizon oscillator, then scaled and compared before they are treated as a participation reading.
- A new-high or new-low is most often a 52-week extreme, but the same listing can be rebuilt with other lookbacks.
- Daily-versus-weekly-series construction changes extremes and volatility because a weekly list counts a multi-day repeat only once, even when the two trends still move together.
- The same raw counts can become a high-low-differential, a high-low-ratio, a high-low-cumulative line, or a ten-day-oscillator and ten-week-oscillator.
- A new-high and new-low reading is a starting construction until it is checked against other participation measures and the chart path of the market cycle.
Market-breadth, read here through new-high and new-low counts and related transforms, is the participation of the listed universe beyond a headline index. A new-high is a listing that has printed its highest close or trade over a chosen lookback, most often one year. A new-low is a listing that has printed its lowest close or trade over that same lookback. These counts are one of several breadth constructions, sitting alongside advance-decline counts and advancing versus declining volume.
Lookback and listing cadence
A new-high or new-low is most commonly defined as a 52-week extreme, and the same concept can be rebuilt with other lookbacks. Daily-versus-weekly-series construction then changes the published extremes and the volatility of the counts, because a name that appears on several successive daily lists is counted only once in a weekly list. The two series can still move together in trend even while their extremes differ.
Transforms, scale, and comparison
The same raw counts can be transformed into a high-low-differential, the arithmetic difference between the count of new highs and the count of new lows; a high-low-ratio, with new highs expressed relative to the combined total of new highs and new lows; a high-low-cumulative line, a running sum of the high-low-differential; and short-horizon oscillators such as a ten-day-oscillator or a ten-week-oscillator.
A high-low-cumulative line is built like an advance-decline line and can be compared with a headline average to test whether participation confirms or diverges from the index path. Plotting new highs above zero and new lows below zero on a square-root-scale is a construction choice that keeps extreme bursts readable without drowning quieter periods. Index-versus-universe construction adds a second panel: new highs and new lows inside a defined basket such as a large-cap index or a sector, not only in the full listed market.
A starting construction
A breadth reading from new highs and new lows is treated as a starting construction, not a standalone conclusion, until it is checked against other participation measures and the chart path of the market cycle.
All readings on this track · 71 readings
- 1987How a failed rebound, weak breadth, and cycle dates broke the 1987 bull case
- 1988Diagnosing market bottoms with breadth, divergence and averages
- 1988Diagnosing index tops with breadth divergences
- 1988Record highs versus seven-day breadth and divergence
- 1989Constructing a percentage-scaled internals composite
- 1989Constructing a weekly block-tick breadth z-score
- 1989Constructing a dual-rate advance-decline oscillator
- 1989Normalize advance-decline series for a common-scale comparison
- 1990Unchanged-issue share as a narrow-breadth case study
- 1990Evaluating daily and weekly unsigned plurality breadth
- 1990Constructing paired new-high and new-low breadth indicators
- 1990Ten-day HI/LO extremes as a long-horizon breadth signal
- 1990Confirming index cycles with breadth, volume, and waves
- 1990Index cycle gates from breadth and volume
- 1990Constructing advance-decline breadth indicators
- 1990Weekly advance-decline oscillator: weight map, extremes, and spike cycle
- 1990Price-weighted construction distorts breadth, support, and trend
- 1991A peak-sequence test from the new-highs-to-advances-ratio
- 1991Fuzzy rules that turn daily market-breadth into a session consensus
- 1991From daily breadth tallies to a weighted consensus signal
- 1991Retesting market-breadth when market structure changes
- 1991Constructing TRIN as a breadth-volume ratio
- 1991Build the market clock before you read a price bar
- 1991A construction audit of the long-horizon trading index
- 1991Independent formula timers kept as a testable combination
- 1992When identical TRIN prints come from different pairings
- 1992Grade closing tick before a next-session breadth hypothesis
- 1992Noncumulative advance-decline swing confirmation
- 1992Five-day sum construction of the trading index
- 1992Daily closing-trin extremes and next-day direction
- 1992A three-layer audit: regime, breadth, and group RSI
- 1992Constructing a nine-state trend, momentum, and breadth score
- 1993Constructing a market-volume-impact rating from nested averages
- 1993When advance-decline confirmation counts the wrong universe
- 1993Constructing breadth momentum from advance-decline smoothing
- 1993Constructing a cumulative market-thrust line
- 1994Three-horizon construction of the Haurlan index
- 1994Checklist-gated session entry in 1993 index futures
- 1994Read one advance-decline pair through three windows
- 1994Constructing calibrated market-breadth summation indexes
- 1994Constructing a two-speed advance-decline oscillator and a calibrated summation
- 1995NYSE tick extremes and candlestick reversal entries
- 1995Assembling range, breadth, and a stored stop into one procedure
- 1995Restating market breadth timing rules as ratios
- 1995Constructing breadth ratio gates after lookback drawdowns
- 1995Building a short-range breadth and price oscillator
- 1996Constructing a smoothed advance-decline trend filter
- 1996Smoothed advance-decline alerts at the 1987 and 1990 turning points
- 1996Constructing breadth, RSI, and stochastic range filters
- 1996New-high and new-low counts as a breadth construction
- 1996Constructing the four-input breadth-volume ratio
- 1996Constructing the McClellan oscillator and a calibrated summation index
- 1996Declare the oscillator seed, then calibrate only the summation index
- 1997Three-gate centered strength in market-breadth construction
- 1997Daily advance-decline and new-high new-low breadth signals
- 1999Index-fund positions as a majority-vote committee
- 2000Tick, tiki and TRIN as a three-layer session confirmation stack
- 2000Constructing an advance-decline oscillator from one listed tape
- 2001Market breadth, beta, and volume-price confirmation
- 2001Regime context from relative venue volume, breadth, and intermarket spreads
- 2002When NYSE breadth misreads operating-stock participation
- 2003Two-gate breadth divergence and a trend filter for rally tops
- 2003Market internals confirm or diverge from the index
- 2004Constructing the McClellan oscillator and summation index
- 2005Intraday index-futures divergence as a three-part session hypothesis
- 2005Breadth summation levels as a short-term signal filter
- 2005Checking trend versus range with breadth and divergence
- 2011Constructing a Nasdaq hi-lo index from highs, lows, and issues traded
- 2013Cumulative advance-decline versus a one-year average
- 2013A one-year breadth average as a participation gate
- 2015Falsifying a healthy correction with breadth and support