Technical analysts, who study charts to make buying and selling decisions, are telling clients the stock market rally is likely to push forward despite the massive gains in equities over the past four months.
"We came into the year with a 2017 target of 2500 for the S&P 500, and we think this is still likely to occur," Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer wrote in an email to CNBC PRO. That price objective implies another gain of 4.5 percent from here.
Since the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8, the S&P 500 is up nearly 12 percent led by the financials sector, which is up about 25 percent on expectations of lower regulation, lower taxes and higher interest rates under President Donald Trump.
Other cyclical groups such as industrials and materials are also up significantly in the postelection rally, posting gains of 13 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
"Typically, equity rallies mature with a progression of trend deceleration, a subtle and then increasing amount of realized volatility with larger price swings within an intact uptrend...At this point, we do not even see trend deceleration," JPMorgan technical market strategist Jason Hunter wrote in a research note.
Below we highlight how three top technical analysts are telling clients to position themselves for the months ahead:
