Indices to track the broader economy

Hi,

The list at the end of the message shows various sector indices I have been using to gauge the general trend and the health of the broader US equity market (using technical analysis). I am not sure whether they are appropriate and whether they cover all the important sub-sectors of the economy.

1. Could you please suggest any changes to the list?
2. What is the better tool to track these sub sectors, indices or ETFs based on these indices?

Thanks,

MG.


-----------List -------------------------------
Amex Airline index
NASDAQ Transportation Index

Philadelphia Bank Index
Amex Broker dealer Index
NASDAQ Insurance Index

Dow Jones US Chemical Index
Morgan Stanley Commodity Related Equity Index
AMEX Natural Gas Index
Amex Oil Index
Philadelphia Oil Services Index

Amex Computer Technology Index
Amex Disk Drive Index
Amex Computer Hardware Index
Interactive week Internet Index
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
Amex North American Telecom Index

S&P Healthcare index
Amex Pharmaceutical Index
Morgan Stanely Health Care Product Index
Morgan Stanely Health Care provider index
Amex Biotechnology Index

Dow Jones US Paper Index
Dow Jones REIT Index
S&P Retail Index
Philadelphia utility Index
-----------------------------------------------

this site gives a good list:

http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/Favorites.CServlet?obj=msummary&cmd=show,iday[Y]&disp=SXA


i tend to look at banks, brokers, semi, biotech, trans, hardware,software, internet, networks, telecom, oil, oil services, retail, gold, builders and health.

musicgold said:

Hi,

The list at the end of the message shows various sector indices I have been using to gauge the general trend and the health of the broader US equity market (using technical analysis). I am not sure whether they are appropriate and whether they cover all the important sub-sectors of the economy.

1. Could you please suggest any changes to the list?
2. What is the better tool to track these sub sectors, indices or ETFs based on these indices?

Thanks,

MG.

Click to expand...

I wonder if any of these would help

CandleGlance: Major Industry Groups 1
http://stockcharts.com/scripts/php/...CH,$CRX,$XCI,$DDX,$XAU,$HWI,$RXP,$RXH,$DJUSIR

CandleGlance: Major Industry Groups 2
http://stockcharts.com/scripts /php...$DJUSFR,$DRG,$DJR,$DJUSRT,$XBD,$SOX,$XTC,$UTY

CandleGlance: S&P Select Sector SPDRs
http://stockcharts.com/scripts/php/candleglance.php?XLF,XLK,XLI,XLB,XLE,XLP,XLV,XLU,XLY

Market Summary Carpet
http://stockcharts.com/charts/SummaryCarpet.html

PerfChart: John Murphy's Industry Groups
John Murphy's Industry Groups is a subsection after you get to the performance chart page
http://stockcharts.com/charts/performance/

ahad22 and songcon

Thanks a lot guys.

ahad22 said:
this site gives a good list:

http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/F...&cmd=show,iday[Y]&disp=SXA

Click to expand...

ahad22, this link is not working. Can you please re-insert the link?

here's the link:
http://stockcharts.com/charts/summary/

Thanks David.

musicgold you also want to look at market internals along with sectors if you want to
read the trend and health of the market.

david22 said:

musicgold you also want to look at market internals along with sectors if you want to
read the trend and health of the market.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I do look at the A/D ratio, high low ratio and volume strength.
Anything else, you think I should look at?

i focus on the markets from an intraday perspective and look at internals
like advancers vs decliners, advancing vs declining volume and tick.
( you could take this to the next level by creating custom internals)

If i trade the sp500, I also look at dow and nasdaq100 for confirmation or divergance.