It was nearly a perfect session for the bulls today as the stock market indices gapped up at the opening, ran steadily all morning, slowed down the ascent, but continued to rise into late in the session and were near their session highs with less than a half hour to go before a little bit of a pullback chipped off a small chunk of the gains. Still, it was a very big day.

Net of the day, the Dow was up 193.45 to 10,944.72, the S&P 500 up 23.71 to 1160.74, and the Nasdaq 100 up 49.30 to 2024.63.

Advance-declines were better than 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 4 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was about 15 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume at about 1.25 billion shares. Nasdaq traded more than 2.1 billion today and had almost a 7 to 1 positive ratio.

So, the technicals cooperated today, with advancing volume heavier than recently. It was a significant session for the bulls as trend line, price and moving average resistance were all taken out in one fell swoop.

All the stocks on TheTechTrader.com board were up today except for the ultra-shorts, obviously. Leading the way was Apple Inc. (AAPL), up 10.30 to 288.94. Goldman Sachs (GS) gained 3 to 149.57, and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) was up 5.48 to 160.87.

Other point-plus gainers of note included VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC), a swing trade pick, up 1.75 to 18.55 on 5.5 million shares. Polypore International Inc. (PPO), one of our Top 20 members, advanced 1.78 to 31.26.

In addition, Radware Ltd. (RDWR) gained 1.16 to 34.58, LogMeIn, Inc. (LOGM) 1.28 to 36.29, and Cree Inc. (CREE) 1.86 to 54.15. Amtech Systems Inc. (ASYS), a recent swing trade pick, was up 1.59 to 18.90, and Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP), another swing trade, 1.07 to 19.99. Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) joined the party, up 1.07 to 37.98.

Among the ultra ETFs, the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS), was up 1.31 to 22.75.

The ultra-short ETFs got hammered today, as the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) dropped 2.30 to 24.36, the Direxion Daily Emrg Mkts Bear 3X Shares (EDZ) 1.34 to 24.53, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 94 cents to 16.44, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) 82 cents to 12.47.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, it was pretty much all upside today, as the indices, which were very close to potentially rolling over and taking out support, surprised and reversed direction, went north and blew out the shorts today.

Harry Boxer is a technical consultant to many Wall Street hedge funds and large institutional traders, and author of TheTechTrader.com.