The stock market indices managed to hold their gains today after gapping up in the morning, and ended with a solid up-session. The indices gapped up, pulled back early, and then held before rallying in a 3-wave move to get above 2155 and right at 1196, essentially a triple-top on the S&P 500. The last couple hours were spent backing and filling, slowly drifting downward a bit, giving back just a portion of the gains.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 64.10 at 11,188.72, the S&P 500 up 9.19 at 1193.57, and the Nasdaq 100 up 23.30 at 1251.72.

Advance-declines were nearly 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange and 2 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was just about 3 to 1 positive on New York, but volume was a light 900 million. Nasdaq traded 1.9 billion and had a nearly 14 to 5 positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was exceptional today and almost all higher, with many point-plus gainers. Large cap gainers included Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 5.18 to 309.36, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) up 2.03 to 164.61, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 1.25 to 162.82.

Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) jumped 1.45 to 59.31, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 1.71 to 40.54, Acacia Research Corporation (ACTG) 1.32 to 27.10, and Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) 1.42 to 15.82.

In addition, some of the stocks we traded today that had big days included low-priced Uranium Resources, Inc. (URRE) up 39 cents to 1.68, a 30% gain. Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX) advanced 3.03 to 51.09, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.68 to 34.76, Intevac Inc. (IVAC) 1.87 to 11.60, W&T Offshore Inc. (WTI) 2.07 to 12.83, NutriSystem Inc. (NTRI) 1.71 at 20.50, Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. (SKH) 84 cents to 4.77, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) 96 cents to 12.19, Mercer International Inc. (MERC) 68 cents to 6.09, Tianli Agritech, Inc. (OINK) 91 cents to 6.96, and Pain Therapeutics Inc. (PTIE) 49 cents to 8.44.

Some of the other gainers included DragonWave Inc. (DRWI) up 45 cents to 8.51, and China Marine Food Group Limited (CMFO) up 71 cents to 6.50.

The only point-plus loser on our board was ultra-short ETF Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA), down 1.40 to 21.67. Fractional losses included Sourcefire, Inc. (FIRE), down 79 cents to 24.38.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply at the opening, backed off, and then came on strong to make new highs for the day only to back off in the last couple hours, but in a corrective manner.

So, today saw solid gains ahead of tonight's elections. It’s going to be very interesting to see what occurs.

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