The stock market indices got off to another strong start following up on last week’s action, but the day was a little choppy in the morning.

The day started off with a bang, as the indices ran up to new rally highs, reaching 2210 on the Nasdaq 100 and just under 1200 on the S&P 500. They backed off pretty quickly and sharply, but held support. They then came on in a steady rally all afternoon taking the NDX from 2180 to 2213, and closing right at the day going away. The S&P 500 similarly went from about 1188 to 1204, and closed just underneath that.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 213.88 at 11,482.90, just 2 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 25.68 to 1204.49, right at the tick high for the day, as was the Nasdaq 100, up 32.07 to 2214.12.

Advance-declines were a whopping 2825 up and 277 down, more than 10 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq was almost as good with 2129 up and 497 down, or 4 1/2 to 1 positive. Up/down volume was 1 billion-plus up and 40 million down on New York, or 25 to 1 today. Total volume on New York was 1.1 billion. Nasdaq traded 1.83 billion with 3 billion up and 76 million down, about a 10 to 1 positive ratio.

So, it was a terrific day for the technicals.

TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly higher, except for the ultra-shorts, of course. SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) was up 1.29 to 37.50, and ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) jumped 94 cents to 15.67, after having traded over 17 earlier in the day. Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) had a big day today on short covering, up 2.55 to 27.11. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 6.42 to 383.41, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 4.79 to 172.99, and Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.66 to 119.13. LSB Industries Inc. (LXU) leapt 2.97 to 38.75, and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) had a big day, up 3.97 to 21.66.

Among other point-plus gainers of note, Ebix Inc. (EBIX) gained 1.08 to 17.45, Brigham Exploration Co. (BEXP) jumped 1.64 to 30.33, and Global Crossing Ltd. (GLBC) 1.32 added to 31.22.

On the downside, despite the big drop InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) had, it did manage to rally back quite a bit off the low and closed at 64.96, down 10.76, which was a good 6.00 of the low. We traded that one today. There were no other point-plus losers among the individual stocks on our board today except for Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO), which fell 1.06 to 44.61.

The ultra-short ETFs got hammered today. The Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) was down 4.23 to 44.54, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 5.54 to 55.54, the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) 1.95 to 32.18, and the Direxion Daily Large Cap Bear 3X Shares (BGZ) 2.90 to 41.27.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up early, down mid-morning, and then up for the rest of the session, closing at the highs for the day going away on the NDX and S&P 500. It was a great day today to start off the week. However, we're getting a little long on the tooth here and the rally may need some pullback and retesting, as we're reaching overhead resistance in the 2260-80 zone on the NDX and near the 1217-20 zone on the SPX.

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