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New Highs – New Lows: 52-Week Breadth Balance vs SPY

Daily 52-week new highs vs new lows across ~5,600 US equities — the leadership gauge. Fresh highs measure leadership being created; fresh lows measure breakdown. The spread, its cumulative line, and the split-market configuration (both elevated at once) are the raw ingredients behind the Hindenburg Omen.

Today's reading

As of market close on July 21, 2026, 84 US stocks made new 52-week highs (1.8% of issues) and 74 made new 52-week lows (1.6%) — a spread of +10, net leadership creation. The cumulative NH-NL line stands at 187,624, measured across 4,750 qualifying issues since 2010.

Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-07-21 · Open ↓
Source
Daily OHLCV for ~5,600 US equities (2010–present)
Methodology
Rolling 365-day high/low per stock (excl. today); daily NH/NL counts, spread, and cumulative line
Updates
Daily after market close (~1:30 PM PT)Last: 2026-07-21
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Cumulative NH-NL line2026-07-21 · close
EXPANDING
▲ +2,434

The cumulative line is rising — net new-high leadership is accumulating and participation is broadening.

Stands at 187,624 · +2,434 over 1mo · +6,700 over 3mo.

New Highs
84
1.8% of issues
New Lows
74
1.6% of issues
NH/NL Ratio
1.14
highs per low
Universe
4,750
qualifying issues

SPY closed at $748.28, up 0.2% over the past month. The line and the index are moving together — a confirmed, broad-based move.

Range:
01

Cumulative NH-NL line

Cumulative NH-NL Line

Running total of the daily NH−NL spread since 2010 — the headline gauge. A rising line is broadening leadership; a falling line under a rising index is the textbook leadership divergence.

Cumulative NH-NLSPY price (right)
02

Daily new highs vs new lows

New 52-Week Highs vs New 52-Week Lows

New highs above the zero line (green), new lows mirrored below (red), SPY overlaid. 1,000+ new-low days mark indiscriminate liquidation.

New 52-week highsNew 52-week lowsSPY price (right)

Reading the current tape

On 2026-07-21, 84 stocks made new 52-week highs and 74 made new 52-week lows across 4,750 qualifying issues — a spread of +10. The cumulative NH-NL line stands at 187,624 with SPY at $748.28.

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How New Highs – New Lows Works

  1. 1
    Track every stock's trailing 52-week range
    For each of ~5,600 US equities we maintain the rolling 52-week (365-calendar-day) high and low of its daily highs and lows, excluding the current day.
  2. 2
    Count the day's new highs and new lows
    A stock prints a new high when today's high exceeds its prior 52-week high, and a new low when today's low undercuts its prior 52-week low. Stocks need a full year of history to qualify — recent IPOs are excluded until they do.
  3. 3
    NH − NL is the day's leadership balance
    Positive spreads mean fresh leadership is expanding; negative spreads mean more stocks are breaking down than breaking out. The magnitude matters: triple-digit negative readings with the index near highs are the classic warning.
  4. 4
    Accumulate into the cumulative NH-NL line
    Like the A-D line, the running total filters daily noise. A falling cumulative NH-NL line during a rising market is a textbook negative divergence — the pattern at the heart of the Hindenburg Omen.

Who Uses New Highs – New Lows

Trend Followers
Regime confirmation: sustained positive NH-NL spreads confirm healthy uptrends. Treat persistent negative spreads as a no-new-longs filter even when the index holds up.
Risk Managers
Split-market detection: simultaneously elevated new highs AND new lows (both >2.2% of issues) is the Hindenburg precondition — internal disagreement that often precedes volatility.
Bottom Fishers
Climax spotting: new-low counts above ~1,000 across the broad universe mark indiscriminate selling; the subsequent contraction in new lows (even as price retests) is the classic bottoming signature.
Sector Rotators
Use expanding new highs during flat tape as evidence of stealth leadership building beneath the surface — then find it with the sector health dashboard.

Pro Tips

01
New lows lead at tops; new highs lead at bottoms
Expanding new lows while the index makes highs is the single most reliable internal warning. Conversely, the FIRST surge of new highs off a washout (even a modest one) tends to mark durable lows.
02
Watch the contraction, not just the expansion
At selloff lows, the second test of price lows on far fewer new lows is the high-probability turn signal — selling pressure exhausting even as price revisits the level.
03
Normalize by universe size mentally
A 150 new-low day means something different in a 3,000-issue market than a 5,600-issue one. The Hindenburg threshold style (% of total issues) is the cleaner way to think about extremes.
04
Pair with the A-D line
NH-NL measures leadership at the extremes of the 52-week range; A-D measures everyday direction. Deterioration in BOTH is materially more bearish than either alone.

Common Issues & Solutions

NH-NL ratio shows "—" some days▾
On days with zero new lows the high/low ratio is undefined (division by zero), so we render a dash rather than a misleading number. The NH−NL spread is always available.
The counts look different from NYSE-only NH-NL data▾
Universe difference: classic NH-NL services count NYSE listings (~2,800 issues incl. funds); we count ~5,600 US common equities across exchanges. Levels differ; the patterns and divergences read the same way.
Why do new highs and new lows spike at the same time?▾
Split markets — money rotating hard between groups (e.g. value making highs while growth makes lows). It's genuine information, not bad data: that internal disagreement is exactly what the Hindenburg Omen formalizes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are 52-week new highs and new lows?▾
A stock makes a 52-week new high when today's high exceeds the highest price it traded at over the prior year, and a new low when today's low undercuts the prior year's lowest price. The daily counts across the whole market measure how much fresh leadership (highs) versus fresh breakdown (lows) is being created.
How do I read the NH-NL spread?▾
Positive = more stocks breaking out than breaking down; negative = the reverse. Healthy uptrends sustain positive spreads. The warning configuration is negative or deteriorating spreads while the index itself is flat or rising — leadership narrowing beneath the surface.
What is the cumulative NH-NL line?▾
The running sum of each day's NH−NL spread. It smooths daily noise into a trend: rising = leadership expanding, falling = leadership contracting. Divergences between this line and the index behave like A-D line divergences, with more emphasis on the extremes of the 52-week range.
What is an extreme new-low reading?▾
Across our ~5,600-stock universe, 1,000+ new lows in a single day marks indiscriminate liquidation (seen in 2011, 2018, 2020, 2022). Such days cluster near — but don't precisely time — durable lows. The follow-through signal is new lows CONTRACTING on the next price retest.
How does this relate to the Hindenburg Omen?▾
The Hindenburg Omen fires when BOTH new highs and new lows exceed 2.2% of issues while the market is in an uptrend with negative breadth momentum — a formalized "split market" detector built directly on these counts. This page shows the raw ingredients; the Omen page shows the composite signal.
What universe does this use?▾
Approximately 5,600 US common equities from our daily OHLCV database (2010–present). A stock needs a full year of trading history before it can register a new high or low, so recent IPOs don't distort the counts.

Explore Other Tools

Hindenburg Omen
The NH+NL split-market crash signal with a 15-year record
Advance-Decline Line
Net advancers minus decliners, daily and cumulative
MA Breadth
% of stocks above the 10/50/100-day moving averages
Sector Health
All 11 GICS sector ETFs classified into trend regimes
Last updated: 2026-07-21