Understanding market moves
Interpret participation, weighting, sectors and trends without overreading a single signal.
Browse the full library →What is market breadth?
Market breadth describes how widely a market move is shared across a defined group of stocks. It looks beyond the headline index to ask how many stocks are rising, falling or meeting another stated condition.
Worked example · BeginnerWhy can an index rise while most stocks fall?
An index can rise while most of its stocks fall when the stocks that gain carry enough weight to outweigh the decliners. The number of winners and their influence on the index are separate parts of the calculation.
Comparison · BeginnerCap weight vs. equal weight
A market-cap-weighted index gives larger equity market values more influence under its methodology. An equal-weighted index resets constituents to equal weights at scheduled rebalances. Different weights can produce different returns from the same companies.
Term explained · BeginnerWhat is relative performance?
Relative performance describes how one investment or index performed compared with a stated benchmark over the same period. An absolute gain can still be underperformance if the benchmark gained more.
Concept explained · BeginnerSectors and Industries
Sectors and industries organize companies by business activity. A sector is a broad category; industries and sub-industries provide finer groupings. A market report’s sector results depend on the classification, universe and weighting used.
Concept explained · BeginnerMoving Averages Explained
A moving average smooths a sequence by averaging observations over a rolling window. A simple moving average weights those observations equally. It describes past data and responds with a lag rather than revealing the future.