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What You’ll Learn

How to read the Market Breadth panel, how to interpret the sector bars and summary stats, and when breadth either confirms or contradicts what SPX is doing.

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What It Shows

The Market Breadth panel is a live snapshot of the eleven SPDR sector ETFs. Each row is one sector: For each sector you see the symbol and name, a horizontal bar scaled to the largest mover, the day’s percent change, and the live price. Values refresh every few seconds. At the bottom, a summary line shows how many sectors are up, how many are down, and the average percent change across all eleven.

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Reading The Heatmap

The bars are anchored at the center. Green bars push right, red bars push left. The longest bar belongs to the day’s biggest mover; everything else is scaled relative to it. What to look for:
  • Bars all leaning the same way — broad participation. The index move has support underneath it.
  • A long green bar with mostly red elsewhere — a single sector is carrying the tape (often XLK on a mega-cap day). The index print is misleading.
  • Defensives leading (XLU, XLP, XLV up while XLK and XLY are down) — risk-off rotation, even if SPX itself looks flat.
  • Cyclicals leading (XLY, XLI, XLF green) — risk-on rotation, often a healthier rally.
  • Average near zero with a wide spread — rotation day. Index level masks real movement underneath.
The up / down count in the footer is the fastest read on whether breadth agrees with price. A green index with a 3-up / 8-down split is a warning, not a confirmation.

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When To Use

Use Market Breadth alongside an SPX or SPY chart to judge tape health:
  • Confirming a trend — strong breadth on a directional move means follow-through is more likely.
  • Spotting divergence — index up, breadth weak: the rally is narrow and fragile.
  • Reading rotation — when sectors disagree but the index is flat, the action is happening underneath.
  • Sizing decisions — broad participation supports larger size; narrow leadership argues for smaller.
Breadth is a context tool, not a signal generator. Pair it with price action, volume, or Quote Flow before acting on what you see.