Advance-Decline Line: Daily Net Advances & Cumulative A-D
The classic participation gauge across 4,579 eligible US-listed common shares today: how many rose versus fell, whether that pressure is improving, and where a divergence lives. The liquidity ladder separates weakness in the less-traded tail from deterioration in the 2,000 names that carry most market activity.
Today's reading
As of market close on October 19, 2026, 1,852 US stocks advanced and 2,610 declined (40% advancers) — net advances of -758, a negative-breadth session. The 63-session advance share is 46.6% across 4,579 eligible common stocks. The structural breadth regime is tail contained.
Sources, methodology & freshnessTradeStation daily prices and dated Massive security classifications · Daily after market close (~1:30 PM PT)Data as of 2026-10-19 · Open ↓Close ↑
40% of eligible issues advanced today.
SPY closed at $766.48. One session is noisy. Use the liquidity ladder and rolling participation below to locate whether weakness is broad or confined to the tail.
Last 10 sessions by universe
Oct 6 to Oct 19, 2026. Each cell is that session's advancers minus decliners; green when more stocks rose than fell. SPY -1.1%, QQQ -5.0% over the same sessions.
| Universe | Oct 6 | Oct 7 | Oct 8 | Oct 9 | Oct 12 | Oct 13 | Oct 14 | Oct 15 | Oct 16 | Oct 19 | Oldest → latest | Up days | Net, 10d |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All US Stocks | +14 | −1,924 | +475 | +183 | −454 | −670 | −2,288 | +1,849 | −1,571 | −758 | 4/10 | −5,144 | |
| S&P 500 Members | +169 | −221 | +174 | +135 | +137 | +28 | −12 | +254 | −5 | −146 | 6/10 | +513 | |
| Nasdaq-100 Members | +22 | −22 | −8 | +30 | −8 | −12 | −12 | +26 | −36 | +20 | 4/10 | +0 | |
| All Nasdaq-Listed | −355 | −903 | −104 | +131 | −540 | −770 | −1,411 | +979 | −1,322 | −145 | 2/10 | −4,440 |
Over these 10 sessions, all US stocks: more decliners (net −5,144, 4 of 10 sessions up); S&P 500 members: more advancers (net +513, 6 of 10 sessions up); Nasdaq-100 members: an even split (net +0, 4 of 10 sessions up); all Nasdaq-listed stocks: more decliners (net −4,440, 2 of 10 sessions up).
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 rows count today's members; see the survivorship caveat under the charts below.
Range controls apply to the cumulative, rolling-pressure and daily charts. The liquidity ladder stays anchored to the A-D peak.
Cumulative A-D line
All US Stocks: Cumulative A-D Line
Running total of net advances across every eligible US-listed common share from 2016-11-01. The absolute level depends on that starting point; historical coverage also affects the shape.
S&P 500 Members: Cumulative A-D Line
The same running total for today's S&P 500 members (493 of 503 have price history; list as of 2026-10-19). On 2026-10-19: 172 advancing, 318 declining.
Nasdaq-100 Members: Cumulative A-D Line
The same running total for today's Nasdaq-100 members (98 of 101 have price history; list as of 2026-10-19). On 2026-10-19: 58 advancing, 38 declining.
All Nasdaq-Listed Stocks: Cumulative A-D Line
Every eligible common share listed on Nasdaq, 2,642 on 2026-10-19 (1206 advancing, 1351 declining). Most are small companies, so this line shows the breadth beneath the Nasdaq-100. It also keeps stocks that later delisted, so it carries none of the index lines' survivorship drift.
Survivorship caveat. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 lines use today's members all the way back to 2016-11-01; we hold no historical membership. Companies removed from either index, often after falling, are missing, and later additions are counted before they joined. Older readings are therefore biased upward and these lines drift up over time, so read them for recent turns and divergences, not for their long-run trend or level against the all-stocks line above.
Liquidity ladder
The liquid 2,000 remain net positive over 252 sessions; the less-liquid tail contains the headline weakness.
All US Stocks: Where the Divergence Lives
Every eligible US-listed common share, re-ranked after every close by trailing 63-session average dollar volume. Each panel has its own scale and starts at zero on 2021-06-11; add the three endpoints to reconcile the headline A-D change.
The liquid 2,000 reached a post-2021 high of +16,205 on 2026-08-14; today they stand at +8,346, or -7,859 below that high.
Rolling breadth pressure
All US Stocks: Rolling Share of Advancing Issues
Normalized participation across changing universe sizes. Above 50% means more directional stock-days advanced than declined over the window. Latest: 21D 44.8% · 63D 46.6% · 252D 49.1%.
Daily advancers vs decliners
All US Stocks: Advancing vs Declining Stocks
Advancers above the zero line (green), decliners mirrored below (red), SPY overlaid. A session with at least 90% of directional issues on one side is a genuine washout or thrust regardless of universe size.
Do unconfirmed highs predict a crash?
All US Stocks: Confirmed vs Unconfirmed 252-Session Highs
Every SPY 252-session closing high since 2011, split by whether the cumulative A-D line was also at its own trailing high. Only complete 252-session forward windows are graded.
231 complete days
55 complete days
| One-year outcome | A-D unconfirmed 231 complete days | A-D confirmed 55 complete days |
|---|---|---|
| Average SPY return one year later | +10.5% | +7.6% |
| Positive one year later | 76.6% | 70.9% |
| Fell ≥10% below signal-day close | 45.0% | 61.8% |
| Fell ≥20% below signal-day close | 19.9% | 34.5% |
The observations overlap—adjacent record days share most of the same forward path—so these are regime-day base rates, not independent episodes.
Reading the current tape
On 2026-10-19, 1,852 stocks advanced and 2,610 declined (117 unchanged) — net advances of -758. The cumulative A-D line stands at 9,249 with SPY at $766.48. The 252-session breadth split is +336 net advances in the liquid 2,000 versus -21,341 in the tail, a tail-contained regime.
Cross-check the long-term trend on MA Breadth, leadership on New Highs–New Lows, and equal-weight performance on the Hidden Bear Index.
The Manual — the advance-decline line
In our reconstructed record, the A/D peaks associated with the selected 2018, 2020, 2022 market tops occurred 15, 22 and 142 sessions earlier. Historical stock and price coverage remains incomplete. The full owner's guide covers how the line is built, the divergence record with charts, participation across liquidity cohorts, and the structural drift every A/D line carries.
Read The Advance-Decline Line Manual →How the series is built
Historical breadth is reconstructed from available live and archived stock prices. Dated security types exclude funds and preferred shares; listing records assign each observation to its venue. Coverage of former listings remains incomplete, which can affect both the shape and level of these lines.
The corrected series starts 2016-11-01. Earlier Nasdaq listing metadata is too incomplete for this comparison.
Coverage and calculation
The reconstruction retains contributions from 117 archived symbols. Through 2026-09-09, monthly listing snapshots locate changes that are then dated with daily lookups; a transfer and reversal within one month may be missed. Subsequent daily records are retained.
A vote requires positive, finite closes and reported trading volume on two consecutive market sessions. Across the history, 35,049 price pairs failed the price or volume check and 38,272 spanned missing sessions. Those pairs contribute no vote. The series uses vendor-adjusted prices. It does not reproduce an exchange's official issue count.
637 symbols identified as funds in the reference history are excluded throughout this reconstruction, including conflicting older common-share records. This historical screen can also omit an operating-company period when a ticker was reused. These exclusions remain fixed during daily updates.
REITs, business development companies and ordinary shares are eligible when their dated records pass these checks. The all-Nasdaq line uses dated Nasdaq listing codes; stocks on NYSE and other venues contribute to the full series only. SPY and QQQ provide index context.
Download coverage diagnostics40% of eligible issues advanced today.
SPY closed at $766.48. One session is noisy. Use the liquidity ladder and rolling participation below to locate whether weakness is broad or confined to the tail.
How Advance-Decline Line Works
- 1Classify every stock, every dayAfter each close we compare every eligible common stock's close with its prior trading day: higher = advancing, lower = declining, equal = unchanged. The live page reports the current denominator because eligibility changes over time.
- 2Net advances = advancing − decliningThe day's breadth pulse. A +2,000 day means broad buying; a −3,000 day means broad selling, regardless of what the cap-weighted index did.
- 3Accumulate into the A-D lineThe cumulative A-D line adds each day's net advances to a running total. Its absolute value is meaningless; its direction and its divergences from the index are the signal.
- 4Locate the divergence before interpreting itWhen SPY makes a new high but the full A-D line does not, participation is narrower—but the divergence can persist for years. Daily liquidity tiers show whether weakness remains in the less-traded tail or has migrated into the liquid 2,000-stock core.