Concept
New Highs − New Lows
New Highs − New Lows, also known as record-high percent, are Breadth, Sentiment & External Data concepts. The Library holds 1 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top New Highs − New Lows indicators
1 total
What is New Highs − New Lows?
New Highs − New Lows (net new highs) is a breadth measure: each day, count the stocks in an exchange or index making fresh 52-week highs, subtract those making fresh 52-week lows, and plot the result. It answers a question a cap-weighted index cannot: how many individual names are strong enough to trade at 52-week extremes, and how many are breaking down. Sustained positive readings describe broad participation; sustained negative readings describe deterioration underneath the surface, whatever the index itself is doing.
The raw daily series is noisy, so it is usually smoothed or transformed: a cumulative NH-NL line, a moving average, or the record high percent, which normalizes the count as new highs divided by the sum of new highs and new lows. Values also depend on the universe (NYSE, Nasdaq, S&P 500 constituents), so the same day can print different readings on different feeds.
How traders use it
- As trend confirmation: an index advance accompanied by expanding net new highs has broad sponsorship, while new index highs on shrinking net new highs is the classic warning of narrowing leadership, usually examined alongside advance/decline internals.
- As a washout marker: spikes in new lows cluster in selloffs, and some traders watch for new lows to stop expanding while price makes a further low as early evidence that selling pressure is drying up. That is a tendency, not a rule.
- In smoothed form: a cumulative NH-NL line or the record high percent turns a jumpy daily count into a slower gauge that can be compared with its own history or run through breadth-thrust style threshold rules.
Related concepts · Breadth
Concept family
Breadth, Sentiment & External Data
63 concepts mapped · 61 in the Library
New Highs − New Lows FAQ
What is the record high percent?
New highs divided by the sum of new highs and new lows, expressed from 0 to 100, so 50 means highs and lows are balanced. Normalizing this way removes the effect of how many issues trade in the universe, which changes over time. Analysts often smooth it with a short moving average before applying threshold rules.
What does it mean when the index makes a high but net new highs shrink?
Fewer individual stocks are strong enough to confirm the move, so leadership is narrowing. This kind of non-confirmation preceded some historical corrections, but lead times ranged from weeks to many months, and some divergences simply repaired as participation broadened again. Most practitioners treat it as a caution flag that still needs price confirmation, not as a sell signal.
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