Question:

I am not sure I completely follow how you decide when we are in
a bull or bear market.  I guess I would like a little tutorial in this
area or maybe I should I just be following the "Big Picture" in IBD?  It
seems to me that IBD never really comes right out and says whether they
think it’s a bull or a bear market.

My Response:

The strength of the market, like the strength of an individual stock is determined by price and volume levels as well as support and resistance areas.  I’d say more than half of my time spent on blog articles is focused on the health of the overall market. IBD’s The Big Picture is helpful and you may like to look at the tutorial here.  I suggest you read through the entire tutorial, specifically the section  regarding Market Direction.  Once you’re comfortable with the idea behind that and are familiar with distribution and accumulation, you’ll understand why I track those days in the calendar on the Market Outlook page (accumulation – green days, distribution – red days).