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Bullish Percent Index: % of Stocks on Point & Figure Buy Signals

The Bullish Percent Index condenses roughly 4,750 eligible common-stock Point & Figure charts in a typical session (1% box, 3-box reversal) into one 0–100 gauge: the share of stocks whose standing structural signal is a buy. Slower and less whipsaw-prone than price-based breadth — when this line reverses from the 70/30 extreme zones, something structural changed.

Today's reading

As of market close on September 4, 2026, the Bullish Percent Index is 44.5% — 2,126 of 4,783 US stocks with standing Point & Figure signals are on a buy signal, putting the index in the bear field (30–50%). The index rose 0.7 percentage points on the session. Computed with a 1% box, 3-box-reversal P&F state machine per stock; the series runs from 2010 to present.

Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-09-04 · Open ↓
Source
Daily OHLCV for eligible US common stocks (roughly 4,750 in a typical session; 2010–present)
Methodology
Per-stock Point & Figure (1% box, 3-box reversal); BPI = % of stocks on a Double-Top-Breakout buy signal
Updates
Daily after market close (~1:30 PM PT)Last: 2026-09-04
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Bullish percent index2026-09-04 · close
BEAR FIELD
44.5%

44.5% of stocks are on a Point & Figure buy signal (+0.7pp vs the prior session).

On Buy Signal
2,126
On Sell Signal
2,657
With Signals
4,783

SPY closed at $770.19. Above 70% is overbought; below 30% is oversold; reversals out of the zones are the classic signals.

Range:
01

Bullish percent index

Bullish Percent Index with Overbought / Oversold Zones

% of stocks on a P&F buy signal, SPY overlaid. Shaded zones above 70% (overbought) and below 30% (oversold).

BPI (% on buy signal)SPY price (right)70 / 50 / 30% references
02

By listing venue

NYSE-listed and Nasdaq-listed Bullish Percent

The same P&F count run separately over each exchange's common stocks — our analogues of the $BPNYA and $BPCOMPQ series. Each line is a percentage of its OWN venue's population, so the two do not average to the index above, and anything that is neither exchange is counted in neither. Venue resolves for 99.4% of scored stocks.

NYSE-listed BPI (45.7%)SPY price (right)
Nasdaq-listed BPI (43.3%)SPY price (right)

The gap between them is the reading. NYSE-listed has run above Nasdaq-listed by 2.4 points today, against a since-2010 average of 4.6 points in NYSE's favour and a range from 24.5 points the other way to 28.7 points wider. A venue in its own oversold zone while the other is not is a rotation rather than a market-wide washout.

Reading the current tape

As of 2026-09-04, the Bullish Percent Index is 44.5% 2,126 of 4,783 stocks with standing Point & Figure signals are on a buy (bear field), with SPY at $770.19. The index rose 0.7pp on the session.

05

The Manual — Bullish Percent Index

The BPI reads 44.5%2,126 of 4,783 stocks on Point & Figure buy signals. The owner's guide grades the folklore against our full record: the 25 sub-30 washouts averaged above-baseline forward returns (with 2022's three straight failures shown), while the 32 over-70 “overbought” episodes preceded above-baseline returns too — the sell-signal half of the legend fails the test.

Read The Bullish Percent Index Manual →

How Bullish Percent Index Works

  1. 1
    Run a Point & Figure chart for every stock
    Each stock's full daily history is converted into a Point & Figure chart using a 1% box size and the standard 3-box reversal — columns of X (rising) and O (falling) that filter out time and small noise, leaving only meaningful price movement.
  2. 2
    Detect buy and sell signals
    The classic signals: a Double Top Breakout (a rising X column exceeding the previous X column's high) flips the stock to a buy signal; a Double Bottom Breakdown (a falling O column undercutting the previous O column's low) flips it to a sell signal. A signal persists until the opposite one fires.
  3. 3
    BPI = % of stocks on a buy signal
    Each day we count the share of stocks whose standing P&F signal is a buy, across every stock with at least one signal on record. 50% is neutral; the information is at the extremes and in the reversals.
  4. 4
    Read it like a field-position gauge
    Above 70% = overbought territory (offense has been working, risk of exhaustion); below 30% = oversold (washout territory where durable lows form). Reversals OUT of the extreme zones are the classic P&F-style signals.

Who Uses Bullish Percent Index

Swing Traders
The classic BPI play: a reversal up from below 30% ("bull alert") historically marks high-probability long entries; a reversal down from above 70% ("bear alert") warns risk/reward has flipped.
Trend Followers
Above 50% and rising = offense; below 50% and falling = defense. The simplest possible regime overlay built from structural signals rather than price level.
Contrarians
Sub-30 readings are rare (a handful of episodes per decade) and historically cluster at major lows — 2011, 2015-16, 2018, 2020, 2022.
Portfolio Managers
Use BPI direction as a tiebreaker for gross exposure: structural buy signals expanding (BPI rising) supports adding; contracting supports trimming.

Pro Tips

01
BPI moves slowly — that's the feature
P&F signals require real price structure to flip, so BPI filters out chop that whipsaws faster breadth gauges. When BPI actually reverses direction, something structural changed.
02
The reversal beats the level
A BPI sitting at 75% says "extended"; a BPI FALLING from 75% says "exit signals are firing en masse". Direction changes from the extreme zones are the actionable events.
03
Combine with MA breadth for confirmation
BPI measures structural signals; % above 50-day MA measures trend position. When both reverse from washout levels together, the bottoming signal is much stronger than either alone.
04
Don't short a high BPI alone
Strong bull markets can hold BPI above 70% for months. Overbought is a condition; the warning is the reversal down combined with deteriorating A-D and NH-NL.

Common Issues & Solutions

My charting platform shows a different BPI value
Universe and box-size differences. The classic StockCharts BPI uses NYSE-listed stocks with traditional box scaling; ours uses eligible US common stocks — roughly 4,750 in a typical session — with a 1% box and 3-box reversal applied uniformly.
BPI barely moved on a big market day
By design. A single-day move only flips a stock's P&F signal if it completes a breakout/breakdown pattern. Big index days driven by mega-caps often flip very few structural signals — which is itself information.
What happened before 2010?
Our daily universe history begins 2010-01-04, and each stock's P&F state machine starts accumulating from its first bar — so the earliest months warm up as signals build. From late 2010 onward the index is fully formed.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Bullish Percent Index?
The Bullish Percent Index (BPI) is the percentage of stocks whose Point & Figure chart is currently on a buy signal. Developed at A.W. Cohen's Chartcraft in the 1950s, it condenses thousands of structural chart patterns into one 0–100 number. Above 70% is considered overbought, below 30% oversold.
What is a Point & Figure buy signal?
P&F charts plot columns of X (rising) and O (falling) using a fixed box size (1% here) and a 3-box reversal rule, ignoring time entirely. A buy signal is a Double Top Breakout — the current X column exceeding the prior X column's high. A sell signal is the mirror-image Double Bottom Breakdown. Signals persist until the opposite pattern completes.
How do I read BPI levels?
Above 70%: overbought — most stocks already on buy signals, fuel limited. 30–70%: the neutral field, where direction matters more than level. Below 30%: oversold washout, historically near major lows. The strongest classic signals are reversals out of the extreme zones; entering a zone is the weaker signal.
Why use P&F signals instead of moving averages?
P&F signals are structural: they require an actual breakout or breakdown pattern to flip, making BPI slower and less whipsaw-prone than MA-based breadth. The two together (BPI + % above 50-day MA) separate "trend position" from "structural damage/repair".
What universe and parameters does this use?
Roughly 4,750 eligible US common stocks in a typical session, drawn from our database of approximately 5,500 stored symbols (2010–present). Each is run through a 1% box size, 3-box reversal P&F state machine over its full history and recomputed after every close. The denominator counts every eligible stock with at least one standing signal.
Why does BPI differ from the StockCharts NYSE BPI?
Different universe (all US equities vs NYSE-listed) and box scaling (uniform 1% vs traditional fixed-dollar boxes by price band). The absolute level can differ several points, but zones, direction, and reversal signals behave the same way.

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Last updated: 2026-09-04