The stock market indices had a tremendous rally today, and if it hadn’t been for the last 15 minute sell-off, it would have been a monstrous day. As it was, it was huge,but they did take back some of the big gains on late profit-taking.

Net on the day the Dow was up 423.37 at 11,141.31, and as high as 568 at one point. The S&P 500 was up 51.88 to 1172.64, about 12 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 93.98 to 2167.07, 20 points off its high.

Advance-declines had an extreme session with 2868 up and only 237 down on the New York Stock Exchange, 2209 up and 423 down on Nasdaq. That’s a very strong, positive ratio. Up/down volume was 1.8 billion up and 46 million down on New York and 3.1 billion up and 92 million down on Nasdaq. That was also a huge positive ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board was broadly higher with just one outstanding loser today other than the ultra-short ETFs. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA), despite strong earnings, got hammered on some comments about competition increasing, and the stock dropped precipitously, down 23.25 to 45.56, or 34%,certainly a dramatic drop .

However, on the bright side, many of the stocks that we traded had big days today. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) was up 5.57 to 44.15, and the Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) up 1.95 to 14.43, although in the last 10 minutes they also dropped back quite a bit..

Other stocks of note included Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 10.01 to 373.70, and Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP), which we traded today, up 2.43 to 28.45. Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) gained 3.36 to 33.12, Goldman Sachs (GS) 7.76 to 118.10, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 4.19 to 166.73, Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 3.81 to 25.13, OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) 3.20 to 26.93, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 2.59 to 54.14, but is trading even higher near 58 in the aftermarket on a stellar earnings report.

Among other gainers of note, Ebix Inc. (EBIX) was up 1.47 to 16.74, InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) 1.63 to 71.36, Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) 1.37 to 19.05, LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) 2.16 to 35.57, MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) 1.78 to 28.39, Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) 1.25 to 9.25, Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) 1.48 to 25.30, and ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 1.01 to 14.16.

In addition, Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), which we traded today, was up 2.19 to 15.92, a nice gain on good earnings.

On the downside, the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 8.48 to 50.00 even. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) was down 12.21 to 59.89, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) lost 7.26 to 45.15.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices opened higher, pulled back and retested, and then exploded. Late morning they formed wedge consolidation patterns, then broke out, flagged midday, and ran again in the afternoon. They spiked up to as high as 2187 on the NDX, and 1186 on the S&P 500. Both of those indices pulled back sharply in the last 10 minutes, although, as you can see, they ended with big gains for the session.

Today’s action broke us out of four-day mini bases, and through declining moving averages on the hourly charts. That’s key for the indices.

We’ll see if there’s a decent follow-through tomorrow.

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