Indices to track broader market?

[musicgold]

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 of the economy, indices or ETFs based on the 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

 

[nazzdack]

1) What you have is sufficient.
2) You could get rid of all of those and just focus on the S&P-500 and not get hung up on sectors. You won't have to waste your time waiting for everything to "line up at the same time" as a means of signal confirmation.

 

[musicgold]

nazzdack,

Thanks.