Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Single Most Reliable Indicator
The Single Most Reliable Indicator
In this video excerpt, Elliott Wave Financial Forecast Editor
Steve Hochberg explains one of the most important things to keep in mind when
assessing a market, "Extreme opinions, shared widely, constitute the single
most reliable indicator of an impending change of direction for a market." Enjoy
your video excerpt.
series: Learn the Why, What and How of Elliott Wave Analysis. This 3-video series
is a great way to get started with the Wave Principle. You can watch these
videos free with a Club EWI Membership.
Watch the Club EWI video series: Learn the Why, What and How of Elliott
Wave Analysis. This 3-video series is a great way to get started with the Wave Principle. You can get these videos free with a Club EWI Membership.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Credit Crisis in Europe
Credit Crisis in Europe: How the Stability of an Entire Region is Teetering on the Edge of a Major Collapse
By EWI's European Financial Forecast editor Brian Whitmer (excerpt)
Panic Now and Avoid the Rush -- July 30, 2010
The market's collective sigh of relief is also reflected in authorities' stress testing of 91 European banks. In case you missed last Friday's results, their message is clear: relax.
The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) gave passing grades to nearly every bank on its list. The group, for example, passed both Irish banks and all four UK banks that it evaluated. The CEBS gave clean bills of health to all four Portuguese banks, all five Italian banks, and five out of six Greek banks that it analyzed.
Even with share prices that sit 29%-66% beneath their 2009 countertrend highs, the CEBS says that the Bank of Ireland, Piraeus Bank, Banco Popolare, and Banco Santander are all in good shape. In fact, just seven of the 91 banks failed to make the grade. Five were in Spain, one in Greece, and one, Germany's Hypo Real Estate, is entirely owned by the German government anyway. Everyone else -- 84 institutions in all -- are supposed to be strong enough to withstand another economic shock.
It's not so much the stellar results that expose the optimism of a Primary degree rally, but rather the Banking Committee's stress tests themselves. They are notable primarily because they failed to test for any real stress in the first place. As the chart shows, the Committee's "adverse scenario" regarding economic performance assumed a mere 3% deviation from the European Commission's GDP forecast.
Another test looked at banks' resilience to a sovereign risk shock, yet the analysis merely used conditions similar to those of May 2010. In other words, just like the UK budget office, the CEBS is utilizing a woefully diluted version of the economic deterioration that is about to grip the continent.
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 FREE REPORT: Discover what Europe's debt crisis means for the future of the continent and your investments. Get your FREE 6-page report filled with unique analysis on Europe, the PIIGS and the sovereign debt crisis. EWI's European Financial Forecast editor Brian Whitmer gives you the context for what's happening in Europe and gets you up to speed on the reality of the situation. Download your free report now. |
Friday, July 15, 2011
How to Find and "Hook" Potential Trade Setups
Here's anothr free lesson on how deploy the Elliott Wave Princple in your trading plan...
Happy Trading!!
How to Find and "Hook" Potential Trade Setups
A Free Lesson on How to Combine Technical Indicators with Elliott Wave Analysis
July 11, 2011
By Elliott Wave International
Trading using technical indicators -- such as the MACD, for example, Moving Average Convergence-Divergence -- can do one of two things: help you or hinder you.
Using them as a forecasting method alone can be about as predictable as flipping a coin. But when you combine them with other forms of technical analysis (i.e. the Wave Principle), the same MACD can be your new best friend.
Technical indicators are meant to do exactly what the name implies: "indicate" that a buy or sell signal may be in place. (Don't confuse "indicate" with "guarantee": They are not called "technical guarantors" for a reason.)
Elliott Wave International's Futures Junctures editor Jeffrey Kennedy shows you how he uses technical indicators to his advantage in his FREE eBook, The Commodity Trader's Classroom:
"Rather than using technical indicators as a means to gauge momentum or pick tops and bottoms, I use them to identify potential trade setups."
Jeffrey goes on to describe his favorite indicator, the MACD:
"Out of the hundreds of technical indicators I have worked with over the years, my favorite study is the MACD [which] uses two exponential moving averages (12-period and 26-period). The difference between these two moving averages is the MACD line. The trigger or Signal line is a 9-period exponential moving average of the MACD line."
Figure 10-1 gives you an example of the MACD indicator in Coffee futures.
One of the signals of a potential trade setup that the MACD often introduces is what Jeffrey refers to as the Hook. Here's another quote from the free eBook:
"A Hook occurs when the MACD line penetrates, or attempts to penetrate, the Signal line and then reverses at the last moment. In addition to identifying potential trade setups, you can also use Hooks as confirmation. Rather than entering a position on a cross-over between the MACD line and Signal line, wait for a Hook to occur to provide confirmation that a trend change has indeed occurred. Doing so increases your confidence in the signal, because now you have two pieces of information in agreement."
Figure 10-4 gives you an example of the Hook at work in live cattle futures.
"A Hook should really just be a big red flag, saying that the larger trend may be ready to resume. It’s not a trading system that I follow blindly. All I'm looking for is a heads-up that the larger trend is possibly resuming."
 | Learn more about other technical indicators that you can use to your advantage, as well as the other important lessons in the FREE 32-page eBook, The Commodity Trader's Cl |
Thursday, July 14, 2011
With QE3 back on the table I thought this would be a nice refresher...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
A Four-Chart Lesson in Spotting Trade Setups
A Four-Chart Lesson in Spotting Trade Setups
June 29, 2011
By Elliott Wave International
You can find low-risk, high-probability trading opportunities by trading with the trend. The trick is to find the end of market corrections, so you can position yourself for the next move in the direction of the trend.
This excerpt from Jeffrey Kennedy's free 47-page eBook How to Spot Trading Opportunities explains where to find bullish and bearish trade setups in your charts and how to zero-in on these opportunities. If this lesson interests you, the full 47-page eBook is free through July 6.
On the left-hand side of the illustration below, there are two bullish trade setups. As traders, we want to wait for the wave (2) correction to be complete so we can catch the move up in wave (3) – this is the trade. What we are trying to do in this bullish trade setup is anticipate the potential for profits on the buy-side as prices move up in wave (3). Another bullish trade setup is at the end of wave (4).
As traders, we are looking to buy the pullback and position ourselves within the direction of the larger up-trend. Remember, three-wave moves are corrections, which means that they are countertrend structures. On the other hand, five-wave moves define the larger trend. As traders, we want to determine what the trend is and trade in the direction of the trend. Our buying opportunity to rejoin the trend is whenever the trend pauses and forms a correction.
Now, let’s look at the right-hand side of the illustration where we see two bearish setups. When a five-wave move is complete, it is retraced in three waves as a correction. The end of the five-wave move presents the first trading opportunity that we can take advantage of the short side (or the sell side) as the wave (A) down begins.
Notice the second bearish trade setup gives us another shorting opportunity as wave (B) tops.
So, within the classic wave pattern of five waves up and three waves down, we have four high-probability trading opportunities in which we are either positioning ourselves in the direction of the trend or identifying termination points of a trend. I want to share with you some tricks I have picked up over the years about how to analyze corrective waves and their termination points. The single most important thing I’ve learned from analyzing corrections is that corrective or countertrend price action is usually contained by parallel lines.
As shown above, draw the parallel lines by beginning at the origin of wave A and going to the extreme of wave B. You draw a parallel of that line off the extreme of wave A. So basically you have a small, slightly angled downward price channel. This will show you the containment region for wave C. It also shows you an area toward the bottom of the lower trend line where you can expect a reversal in price.
Here is another example. Again, you draw the parallel lines off the origin of wave A, the extreme of wave A and the extreme of wave B.
Toward the upper end of the upper trend line, you will usually see a reversal in price.
This example shows how countertrend price action is contained by parallel lines in the British pound, 60-minute, all sessions. Why is it important to know parallel lines contain the corrective or countertrend price action? Number one, it will increase your confidence that you are indeed labeling a countertrend move properly. Number two, it identifies areas where you will likely see prices reverse. For example, we see this reversal up near the top.
 | This brief trading lesson is just a small example of the opportunities you can find once you learn to identify key market patterns. Learn more in your free 47-page eBook, How to Spot Trading Opportunities. This valuable eBook is regularly $79, but you can get it free through July 6. Download your free copy of How to Spot Trading Opportunities now. |
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
What Will Happen to the Stock Market When QE2 Ends?
What Will Happen to the Stock Market When QE2 Ends?
Club EWI's free "Independent Investor eBook, 2011 Edition" offers you an unorthodox view of the Fed's quantitative easing program
June 28, 2011
By Elliott Wave International
The second round of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program, better known as QE2, will expire this week.
The QE2 policy was officially announced on November 4, 2010, and has been widely credited with subsequent stock market gains. And now, according to rumors, the end of this "experimental" program will kill the stock rally -- with potential impact across all markets.
Let's think about that.
For starters, there is little "experimental" about QE2. As EWI's November 2010 Elliott Wave Financial Forecast pointed out to subscribers, "In Japan, the very same remedy the U.S. is applying today -- rate cuts followed by quantitative easing -- finds its stock market still down more than 75% from its December 1989 peak."
Also, this chart, from EWI president Robert Prechter's January 2011 Elliott Wave Theorist, shows "the effect" the first round of quantitative easing (QE1) had on the market:
But investors have short memories. And even many of those who remember how powerless the Fed was during the 2007-2009 crash are convinced that "it's different this time."
What do the facts and the evidence say? Read the expanded, 2011 edition of our popular free Club EWI resource, The Independent Investor eBook.
From the very first pages, the charts and graphs will show you that the Fed’s QE programs are far less powerful than is commonly presumed.
All you need to read this important 118-page eBook online now is to create a free Club EWI profile. Here's what else you'll learn:
- Why QE2 was a major tactical error
- Why interest rates don't drive stock prices.
- Why rising oil prices are not bearish for stocks.
- Why earnings don't drive stock prices.
- What inflation has to do with the prices of gold and silver
- Why the problem with the Fed is its very existence.
- Why central banks don't control the markets.
- MUCH MORE
Monday, June 27, 2011
Can the Fed and Economists Forecast the Future? See This Startling Chart.
Can the Fed and Economists Forecast the Future? See This Startling Chart.
Elliott Wave Financial Forecast Editors Kendall and Hochberg on economists, the Fed and forecasting
June 27, 2011
By Elliott Wave International
Business Talk Radio host Gabriel Wisdom recently spoke with Pete Kendall, Co-Editor of EWI's Elliott Wave Financial Forecast. Their discussion included a crucial but rarely asked question about economists and the Federal Reserve. Here's the relevant excerpt:
Gabriel Wisdom: "Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, says the economy is slowing but there's faster growth ahead. Is he wrong?"
Pete Kendall: "Economists are extrapolationists. They tend to look at what's happening in the economy and extrapolate that forward. So here we have a situation where not just Bernanke but economists in general are looking at... what they call the 'soft patch' and somehow contorting that into growth later in the year.
Pete's startling reply flatly contradicts conventional wisdom. Most people believe that the Fed really is able to anticipate the economic future. After all, they're the most "qualified." But what do the facts say?
Pete's Elliott Wave Financial Forecast Co-Editor Steve Hochberg recently included this eye-opening chart (from Societe Generale Equity Research) in his new subscriber-exclusive video, "Buy and Hold, or Sell and Fold: Where Are The Markets Headed in 2011?"
The red line in the chart is the S&P earnings, and the black line shows economists' forecasts relative to those earnings. Here's what James Montier, head of equity research for Societe Generale, said about it:
"The chart makes it transparently obvious that analysts lag reality. They only change their minds when there is irrefutable proof they were wrong, and then only change their minds very slowly." (emphasis added)
That comment is spot-on. In 2002-2003, as you can see, earnings turned up despite economists' forecasts for earning declines. It took them a while to "turn the ship around" and play catch-up with the trend.
Yet in 2007-2008, earnings turned down -- despite the forecast by economists for continued increases. The devastating truth is that earnings did more than fall in the first quarter of 2008: they had their first negative quarter in the history of the S&P. As Steve said in his subscriber video, "Economists were wrong to a record degree" -- and investors felt the pain.
So what's the point? Economists do extrapolate the trend. That approach works fine, until it doesn't -- and you're on the hook.
Elliott wave analysis never extrapolates trends -- it anticipates them. The Wave Principle recognizes that markets must rise and fall -- and that they unfold according to changes in investor psychology, in a way that is patterned and recognizable.
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Most people believe that the Fed really is able to anticipate the economic future. Now you know the facts. Uncover other important myths and misconceptions about the economy and the markets by reading Market Myths Exposed.
EWI's free Market Myths Exposed 33-page eBook takes the 10 most dangerous investment myths head on and exposes the truth about each in a way every investor can understand. Download your free copy now.
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