5 Ways the Wave Principle Can Improve Your Trading
by Chart School - May 12th, 2011 8:49 pm
By Elliott Wave International
5 Ways the Wave Principle Can Improve Your Trading
Jeffrey Kennedy brings more than 15 years of experience to his position as Elliott Wave International’s Senior Analyst and trading instructor. He knows firsthand how hard it can be to get simple explanations of a trading method that works — so he shares his knowledge with his subscribers each month in the Trader’s Classroom lessons.
Here’s an excerpt from The Best of Trader’s Classroom, a free 45-page eBook that gives you the 14 most critical lessons every trader should know. Download the full eBook free here.
Every trader, every analyst and every technician has favorite techniques to use when trading. But where traditional technical studies fall short, the Wave Principle kicks in to show high-probability price targets. Just as important, it can distinguish high-probability trade setups from the ones that traders should ignore.
Where Technical Studies Fall Short
There are three categories of technical studies: trend-following indicators, oscillators and sentiment indicators. Trend-following indicators include moving averages, Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) and Directional Movement Index (ADX). A few of the more popular oscillators many traders use today are Stochastics, Rate-of-Change and the Commodity Channel Index (CCI). Sentiment indicators include Put-Call ratios and Commitment of Traders report data.Technical studies like these do a good job of illuminating the way for traders, yet they each fall short for one major reason: they limit the scope of a trader’s understanding of current price action and how it relates to the overall picture of a market. For example, let’s say the MACD reading in XYZ stock is positive, indicating the trend is up. That’s useful information, but wouldn’t it be more useful if it could also help to answer these questions: Is this a new trend or an old trend? If the trend is up, how far will it go? Most technical studies simply don’t reveal pertinent information such as the maturity of a trend and a definable price target — but the Wave Principle does.
How Does the Wave Principle Improve Trading?
Here are five ways the Wave Principle improves trading:1. Identifies Trend
The Wave Principle identifies the direction of the dominant trend. A five-wave advance identifies the overall trend as up. Conversely, a five-wave decline determines that the larger trend is down. Why is this information important? Because it is easier to trade in the direction
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Video: The Versatility of the Wave Principle
by ilene - October 15th, 2010 1:59 pm
Video: The Versatility of the Wave Principle
Timeless Trading Lesson
In the video below, EWI senior analyst and trading instructor Jeffrey Kennedy shows how the Wave Principle can help you identify a high-probability trade set up regardless of the direction of the larger trend.
This timeless educational video was taken from Jeffrey’s renowned Trader’s Classroom series and is being re-released because of its valuable lesson. If a few minutes isn’t enough, get more FREE practical trading lessons from Jeffrey Kennedy in his latest eBook.
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Mystifying and Naturally Psychedelic Fractal Zoom
by ilene - September 21st, 2010 9:22 am
Fractals in motion. Elliott Wave theorists relate these mathematically inspired patterns to the ups and downs of the stock market. – Ilene
Mystifying and Naturally Psychedelic Fractal Zoom
Via Dr. Mercola
*****
How does this relate to Elliott Wave Theory?
Learn Basics of Elliott Wave Analysis — FREE
By Elliott Wave International
Ralph Nelson Elliott discovered the Wave Principle in the 1930s. Over the decades, his discovery was kept alive by a handful of individuals. A few of those, such as Bolton, Prechter and Frost, educated investors on how to use pattern analysis in financial markets.
To help out Elliott Wave International’s readers in learning the basics of the method, we put together a free 10-lesson online tutorial. Here’s an excerpt.
EWI’s Basic Elliott Wave Tutorial
Lesson 1, excerpt
At that time [of his discovery], with the Dow in the 100s, R. N. Elliott predicted a great bull market for the next several decades that would exceed all expectations at a time when most investors felt it impossible that the Dow could even better its 1929 peak. As we shall see, phenomenal stock market forecasts, some of pinpoint accuracy years in advance, have accompanied the history of the application of the Elliott Wave approach.
Under the Wave Principle, every market decision is both produced by meaningful information and produces meaningful information. Each transaction, while at once an effect, enters the fabric of the market and, by communicating transactional data to investors, joins the chain of causes of others’ behavior. This feedback loop is governed by man’s social nature, and since he has such a nature, the process generates forms. As the forms are repetitive, they have predictive value.
The market…is not propelled by the linear causality to which one becomes accustomed in the everyday experiences of life. Nor is the market the cyclically rhythmic machine that some declare it to be. Nevertheless, its movement reflects a structured formal progression. In markets, progress ultimately takes the form of five waves of a specific structure.
Three of these waves, which are labeled 1, 3 and 5, actually effect the directional movement. They are separated by two countertrend interruptions, which are labeled 2 and 4, as shown in Figure 1-1. The two interruptions are apparently a requisite for overall directional movement to occur.
At any time, the market may be identified as being somewhere in…
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Technicals vs. Fundamentals: Which are Best When Trading Crude Oil and Natural Gas?
by Chart School - August 11th, 2010 4:17 pm
Technicals vs. Fundamentals: Which are Best When Trading Crude Oil and Natural Gas?
By Elliott Wave International
If "fundamentals" drive trend changes in financial markets, then shouldn’t the same factors have consistent effects on prices?
For example: Positive economic data should ignite a rally, while negative news should initiate decline. In the real world, though, this is hardly the case.
On a regular basis, markets go up on bad news, down on good news, and both directions on the same news — almost as if to say, "Talk to the hand cuz the chart ain’t listening."
Unable to deny this fly in the fundamental ointment, the mainstream experts often attempt to reconcile the inconsistencies with phrases like "shrugged off," "defied" or "in spite of."
That begs the next question: How do you know when a market is going to cooperate with fundamental logic and when it won’t? ANSWER: You don’t.
Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysis methods don’t rely on the news to explain or predict market moves. They look at the markets’ internals instead.
*****
One tool that many traders find helpful in evaluating the markets’ internals is Elliott Wave Theory. Elliott Wave International is offering readers a free trading eBook put together by its senior analyst, Jeffery Kennedy. The eBook contains practical trading lessons which may help you trade any market with more confidence. According to EWI,
This complimentary 32-page collection entitled Commodity Trader’s Classroom (valued at $59) provides you with essential lessons no trader should be without.
Here’s what the eBook covers:
- How to Make Yourself a Better Trader
- How the Wave Principle Can Improve Your Trading
- When to Place a Trade: Jeffrey’s very own "Ready, Aim, Fire" approach
- How to Identify and Use Support and Resistance Levels
- How to Apply Fibonacci Math to Real-World Trading
- How to Integrate Technical Analysis into an Elliott Wave Forecast
- And much more!
Learn more and download your copy of Commodity Trader’s Classroom now.
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Is Elliott Wave Theory High Priest Robert Prechter Certifiably Insane?
by ilene - July 10th, 2010 2:37 pm
Is Elliott Wave Theory High Priest Robert Prechter Certifiably Insane?
Courtesy of Damien Hoffman at Wall Street Cheat Sheet
Fear is easy to sell. As humans, our core instinct is to avoid pain and survive.
Recently, famed Elliott Wave pundit Robert Prechter has been beating the drum for Dow 1,000. Given all the fear of Big Government and crony corporations, Prechter has some serious passions to exploit. Or, is he simply offering objective financial projections? Or worse, is he certifiably insane?
On Yahoo TechTicker we briefly addressed Prechter’s apocalyptic call. However, I must add I think the US and other sovereign governments will use any means necessary to prop up markets long before asset deflation unleashes chaos not seen in generations.
There is always the statistical probability our economy will degenerate into the Dark Ages. But there exists plenty of economic activity to at least ward off a massive unwinding of all global debt. Moreover, the US has seen these debt levels before and we emerged without sharing crumbs for lunch.
Prechter’s main comparable is from almost 300 years ago:
For a rough parallel, he said, go all the way back to England and the collapse of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, a crash that deterred people “from buying stocks for 100 years,” he said. This time, he said, “If I’m right, it will be such a shock that people will be telling their grandkids many years from now, ‘Don’t touch stocks.’ ”
Call me crazy, but modern civilization hardly resembles anything from 300 years…
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Deflation: How To Survive It
by ilene - June 11th, 2010 4:10 pm
Deflation: How To Survive It
Important warnings about deflation from Robert Prechter.
Courtesy of Elliott Wave International
Telegraph.go.uk, May 26: "US money supply plunges at 1930s pace… The M3 money supply in the U.S. is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the biggest fiscal blitz in history."
Deflation is suddenly in the news again. It’s a good moment to catch up on a few definitions, as well as strategies on how to beat this rare economic condition.
And who better to ask than EWI’s president Robert Prechter? He predicted the first wave of deflation in the 2007-2009 "credit crunch" and has written on this topic extensively.
We’ve put together a great free resource for our Club EWI members: a 63-page "Deflation Survival Guide eBook," Prechter’s most important deflation essays. Enjoy this excerpt — to read the full eBook, free, look below.
What Makes Deflation Likely Today?
Bob Prechter, Deflation Survival Guide, free Club EWI eBook
Following the Great Depression, the Fed and the U.S. government embarked on a program…both of increasing the creation of new money and credit and of fostering the confidence of lenders and borrowers so as to facilitate the expansion of credit. These policies both accommodated and encouraged the expansionary trend of the ’Teens and 1920s, which ended in bust, and the far larger expansionary trend that began in 1932 and which has accelerated over the past half-century. Other governments and central banks have followed similar policies. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and similar institutions, funded mostly by the U.S. taxpayer, have extended immense credit around the globe.
Their policies have supported nearly continuous worldwide inflation, particularly over the past thirty years. As a result, the global financial system is gorged with non-self-liquidating credit. Conventional economists excuse and praise this system under the erroneous belief that expanding money and credit promotes economic growth, which is terribly false. It appears to do so for a while, but in the long run, the swollen mass of debt collapses of its own weight, which is deflation, and destroys the economy. A devastated economy, moreover, encourages radical politics, which is even worse.
The value of credit that has been extended worldwide is unprecedented. Worse, most of this debt is the non-self-liquidating type. Much of it comprises…
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What Can Movies Tell You About the Stock Market?
by ilene - March 15th, 2010 6:13 pm
What Can Movies Tell You About the Stock Market?
Courtesy of Elliott Wave International
The following article is adapted from a special report on "Popular Culture and the Stock Market" published by Robert Prechter, founder and CEO of the technical analysis and research firm Elliott Wave International. Although originally published in 1985, "Popular Culture and the Stock Market" is so timeless and relevant that USA Today covered its insights in a recent Nov. 2009 article. For the rest of this revealing 50-page report, download it for free here.
This year’s Academy Awards gave us movies about war (The Hurt Locker), football (The Blind Side), country music (Crazy Heart) and going native (Avatar), but nowhere did we see a horror movie nominated. In fact, it looks like Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was the most recent to be nominated in 2008, for art direction (which it won), costume design and best actor, although the last one to win major awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress was The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.
Whether horror films win Academy Awards or not, they tell an interesting story about mass psychology. Research here at Elliott Wave International shows that horror films proliferate during bear markets, whereas upbeat, sweet-natured Disney movies show up during bull markets. Since the Dow has been in a bear-market rally for a year, now is not the time for horror films to dominate the movie theaters. But their time will come again.
In the meantime, to catch up on why all kinds of pop culture — including fashion, art, movies and music — can help to explain the markets, take a few minutes to read a piece called Popular Culture and the Stock Market, which Bob Prechter wrote in 1985. Here’s an excerpt about horror movies as a sample.
* * * * *
From Popular Culture and the Stock Market by Bob Prechter
While musicals, adventures, and comedies weave into the pattern, one particularly clear example of correlation with the stock market is provided by horror movies. Horror movies descended upon the American scene in 1930-1933, the years the Dow Jones Industrials collapsed. Five classic horror films were all produced in less than three short years. Frankenstein and Dracula premiered in 1931, in the middle of the great bear market. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde played in 1932, the bear market bottom year and the only year that a horror film
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Bob Prechter’s “Conquer The Crash”
by ilene - February 11th, 2010 7:54 pm
Bob Prechter’s "Conquer The Crash": Eight Chapters For Free
By Nico Isaac of Elliott Wave International
When Robert Prechter sat down to write the first edition of "Conquer The Crash" in 2002,… the major blue-chip averages were rebounding off a historic bottom, the notorious dot.com bust was making way for a powerful housing boom, Fannie Mae’s chief executive was named “the most confident CEO in America,” President George Bush was enjoying a 60%-plus approval rating, Gulf War II hadn’t begun yet, and when it did, a “quick and easy victory” was supposed to follow, and the Federal Reserve was largely credited with slaying the big, bad bear via the sharp blade of monetary policy.
Five years later, the tables turned. The U.S. housing market endured its worst downturn since the Great Depression; Fannie Mae’s CEO was ousted amidst a mortgage crisis of incalculable damage. George W. Bush left the oval office with a record low approval rating of 25%, and the expected “cakewalk” victory in Iraq became a “quagmire” and national dilemma.
Anticipating these and other “shocks” to the global system is the unparalleled achievement of “Conquer The Crash.” Here, the following excerpts from the book put any doubt to rest:
Housing: “What screams bubble – giant historic bubble – in real estate is the system-wide extension of massive amount of credit.” And “Home equity loans are brewing a terrible disaster.”
Bonds: “The unprecedented mass of vulnerable bonds extant today is on the verge of a waterfall of downgrading.”
Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: “Investors in these companies’ stocks and bonds will be just as surprised when the stock prices and bond ratings collapse.”
Politics: “Look for nations and states to split and shrink.” And — “The Middle East should be a complete disaster.”
Credit Expansion Schemes “have always ended in a bust.” And — “Like the discomfort of drug addiction withdrawal, the discomfort of credit addiction withdrawal cannot be avoided.”
Banks: “Banks are not just lent to the hilt, they’re past it. In a fearful market, liquidity even on these so called ‘securities’ [corporate, municipal, and mortgage-backed bonds] will dry up.” (176)
The tools in Bob Prechter’s analytical toolbox, Elliott wave analysis and socionomics, enabled him to predict these “sea changes” in the economic, social, and political landscape. What else do the pages…
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U.S. Stocks: Will The Bears Relinquish Control?
by ilene - February 10th, 2010 3:16 pm
U.S. Stocks: Will The Bears Relinquish Control
Courtesy of Elliott Wave International, by Nico Isaac
In case you were hiding out Tiger Woods’ style far away from the mainstream media during the past month, let me be the first to say: January saw an abrupt end to the U.S. stock market’s record-setting winning streak. Last count, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 4% in its worst monthly loss in a year.
And, according to one Feb. 1, 2010, MarketWatch story, "The time to consider an exit strategy" has officially arrived. Here, the article captures the public’s astonishment turned acceptance of the Dow’s boom-to-gloom shift:
"The Dow has shocked the bulls out of their complacency. After all, analysts were looking for the bull market to last until at least the second half of the year. Investors were not prepared for such a sharp decline and now at least some of the chatter has gone from ‘how high will the market go?’ to ‘how low will it fall?’ [emphasis added]"
Let me get this straight. The powers that be say it’s time to "consider an exit strategy" — AFTER the Dow has already plunged 700-plus points to land at its lowest level in two months. That’s about as helpful as building a life raft AFTER your ship has begun to sink.
Let me get this straight. The powers that be say it’s time to "consider an exit strategy" — AFTER the Dow has already plunged 700-plus points to land at its lowest level in two months. That’s about as helpful as building a life raft AFTER your ship has begun to sink.
Those same sources go on to say investors were "not prepared" for the degree and depth of the stock market’s decline. This is only partly true. On Main Street, the early January flood of bull-is-back-type headlines gushed in and washed all the bears away. Yet, on our "Elliott Wave" Street, preparation for a "sharp" decline in the Dow was in place. One week before the market turned down from its Jan. 19 high, Elliott Wave International’s Short TermUpdate went on high bearish alert with this note:
"a trend reversal is fast approaching. A potential stopping range is 10,725-10,740. A close beneath [critical support] will confirm that the diagonal is over and the market has started a down phase that should draw prices significantly
…
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Popular Culture and the Stock Market
by ilene - December 11th, 2009 6:51 pm
Socionomics is premised on the theory that "social mood drives financial, macroeconomic and political behavior, in contrast to the conventional notion that such events drive social mood." Here is an interesting article on socionomics which focuses on social mood and the stock market. (see also, Global Unrest Continues to Grow, Hyperinflation First, Then Global War). – Ilene
Popular Culture and the Stock Market
By Robert Prechter, courtesy of Elliott Wave International
The following article is adapted from a special report on "Popular Culture and the Stock Market" published by Robert Prechter, founder and CEO of the technical analysis and research firm Elliott Wave International. Although originally published in 1985, "Popular Culture and the Stock Market" is so timeless and relevant that USA Today covered its insights in a recent Nov. 2009 article. For the rest of this revealing 50-page report, download it for free here.
Both a study of the stock market and a study of trends in popular attitudes support the conclusion that the movement of aggregate stock prices is a direct recording of mood and mood change within the investment community, and by extension, within the society at large. It is clear that extremes in popular cultural trends coincide with extremes in stock prices, since they peak and trough coincidentally in their reflection of the popular mood. The stock market is the best place to study mood change because it is the only field of mass behavior where specific, detailed, and voluminous numerical data exists. It was only with such data that R.N. Elliott was able to discover the Wave Principle, which reveals that mass mood changes are natural, rhythmic and precise. The stock market is literally a drawing of how the scales of mass mood are tipping. A decline indicates an increasing ‘negative’ mood on balance, and an advance indicates an increasing ‘positive’ mood on balance.
Trends in music, movies, fashion, literature, television, popular philosophy, sports, dance, mores, sexual identity, family life, campus activities, politics and poetry all reflect the prevailing mood, sometimes in subtle ways. Noticeable changes in slower-moving mediums such as the movie industry more readily reveal changes in larger degrees of trend, such as the Cycle. More sensitive mediums such as television change quickly enough to reflect changes in the Primary trends of popular mood. Intermediate and Minor trends are likely paralleled by current song hits, which…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site
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