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Bullish Percent indexes
Measuring how many stocks in a group are on buy signals.
A Bullish Percent index measures the health of a whole group of stocks rather than one stock. It answers a simple question: what percentage of the stocks in this group are currently on a Point & Figure buy signal?
How it works
For every stock in the group (an index such as the S&P 500, or a sector), look at its P&F chart. If its most recent signal was a buy signal, it counts as bullish. The Bullish Percent is the share of stocks that are bullish.
The idea was developed by A.W. Cohen at Chartcraft in the 1950s with the NYSE Bullish Percent, and it remains one of the classic measures of market breadth.
Charting it
The Bullish Percent itself is plotted on a P&F chart, usually with 2% boxes and a 3-box reversal, so it takes a 6% change to reverse direction. It's read with the same rules as any P&F chart: X columns mean more stocks are moving to buy signals; O columns mean more are moving to sell signals.
The key zones
| Reading | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Above 70% | Overbought. Most stocks are already on buy signals, so there are fewer new buyers left. Higher risk. |
| 30% to 70% | The middle ground. Direction (X's or O's) matters most here. |
| Below 30% | Oversold. Most stocks are already on sell signals. Lower risk for new long positions. |
The most watched events are reversals from these extremes: a column of X's reversing up from below 30%, or a column of O's reversing down from above 70%.
Why it matters to a stock trader
Individual stocks tend to move with their market and sector. A buy signal on a stock is more likely to work when the broader group is also improving, and more likely to fail when the group is deteriorating.
For education only. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security.