bellwether vs pointer

bellwether

noun
  • Anything that indicates future trends. 

  • A stock or bond that is widely believed to be an indicator of the overall market's condition. 

  • The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck. 

pointer

noun
  • Something that gives a point (sharp end) to something. 

  • Anything that points or is used for pointing. 

  • A variable that holds the address of a memory location where a value can be stored. 

  • A teacher's pointer, pointing stick, a rod with an arrow. 

  • A needle-like component of a timepiece or measuring device that indicates the time or the current reading of the device. 

  • A breed of hunting dog, trained to point out game. 

  • A tip, a bit of advice. 

  • An icon that indicates the position of the pointing device, such as a mouse. 

  • Something worth a given number of points. 

How often have the words bellwether and pointer occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )