The stock market indices had a very interesting session today, with a 5-wave, sharp sell-off to test support at yesterday’s lows, which held. Then they started a very strong rally for the rest of the session, and rallied right up until the last 10 minutes, reaching new highs for the entire rally on the Nasdaq 100, and nominally so on the S&P 500, but then backed off the last 10 minutes.

Net on the day, the Dow was up 21.57 at 12,471.02, the S&P 500 up 3.02 to 1295.50, and the Nasdaq 100 up 9.74 at 2381.99.

Advance-declines were better than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York, with total volume of 720 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded just under 1.6 billion shares and had a 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.

TheTechTrader.com board had an excellent trading session today. Some of the winners on our board included low-priced Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD), up 1.04 to 4.54, or 30%; Furniture Brands International, (FBN) up 43 cents to 1.56, or 38%; Quest Rare Minerals Ltd Common (QRM) 65 cents to 3.20, or 25%; LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) 52 cents to 3.38, or 18%; Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. (MFLX) 3.87 to 25.40, or 18%; low-priced BioDelivery Sciences Internatio (BDSI) 36 cents to 2.23, or 19%; and Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc (DKS), which we traded today, up 4.54 to 40.94, or 12.3%.

Other stocks of note included Tractor Supply Company (TSCO), up 7.27 to 80.20, and Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), up 80 cents to 8.88 on 1.6 million, the heaviest volume ever traded on an up-day on that stock, up nearly 10% today. Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) advanced 2.56 to 29.22, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) 89 cents to 10.32, and Polypore International Inc. (PPO), a day trade of ours, 3.74 to 51.10.

In addition, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) gained 2.11 to 29.75 on 9.4 million, Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) 97 cents to 15.57, Westlake Chemical Corporation (WLK) 3.07 to 51.24, Qlik Technologies, Inc. (QLIK) 1.49 to 25.21, and Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (FRAN) 1.29 to 22.51.

Swing trade pick Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) was up 1.00 to 17.56, and Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) 1.60 to 32.66.

Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply in the morning, held about midmorning at key support from the last couple sessions, and then rallied sharply the rest of the day, closing with gains on the session, and a nice day for the bulls today, for sure.

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