Alan's Finance Blog

Free U.S. market analysis from the world’s largest market forecasting firm

Dear reader,

I just received a rare opportunity to offer you free U.S. market analysis from the world’s largest market forecasting firm. I strongly encourage you to consider this offer. Other than the fact that Elliott Wave International has fully-prepared their subscribers to take advantage of the recent free fall in US stocks, they never offer free trials to their services. Don’t miss this opportunity to find out what’s next for the US markets.

Check out the details below.

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Elliott Wave International – World’s Largest Market Forecasting Firm

From the Desk Of: Robert Folsom
Date: August 4th, 2011
Subject:

This brief message is all about you. To start with, however, I have to say something “about me.” I’ve been with Elliott Wave International since 1992: That’s a good long time, long enough to have seen lots of days when our staff did all it could to deliver forecasts that prepared subscribers for what’s next.

Yet today stands above virtually all those others. I can scarcely recall a day when we’ve been able to offer 1) So much, 2) So immediately, that is 3) So urgent.

Here is where it’s all about you. Earlier this year, The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast (EWFF) specifically forecast the juncture we’ve arrived at now — it said most people believe the markets and economy are recovered and growing. But there were TWO parts to that forecast; the time has come for the second part to unfold. You’re a few keystrokes away from what EWFF is saying now for free (new issue posts tomorrow, Aug. 5).

What’s more, you’re a few keystrokes from reading Robert Prechter’s current commentary in The Elliott Wave Theorist, again, for free. He provides you with a context to understand the events of the past week and month, which you simply cannot find elsewhere (you won’t need to wonder why the blue chips are now down on the year for 2011 — you’ll know why).

Finally there’s the forecast in The Short Term Update: Earlier this week we alerted subscribers to action in the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials which broke below critical price levels. Perhaps you’ve heard some of the chatter on news and financial websites in the past 48 hours about a “head and shoulders” pattern. Yet Short Term Update subscribers got THAT news two weeks ago, back on July 20 — along with a specific price level that would confirm the forecast.

This is a wealth of forecasting; you can have it immediately; and the moment is indeed urgent. I’ve never seen a day quite like it.

My colleagues here at EWI have put together a two-week free trial to all three of the services I mention above. Together, they we call them the Financial Forecast Service and they deliver the most comprehensive coverage of the US markets available anywhere. Now, if you are already familiar with EWI, you know that we NEVER offer free trials to these services. But you must act now as this offer ends Wednesday, August 10.

Find out what’s next for the US markets.

Thanks for reading,

Robert Folsom
Elliott Wave International

About the Publisher, Elliott Wave International
Founded in 1979 by Robert R. Prechter Jr., Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private around the world.

European Bank Stress Test: “It’s not that 8 failed…but that 82 passed!!”

By Elliott Wave International

The European Banking Authority announced Friday that 8 banks had failed their stress tests and 16 more had narrowly passed. But the results drew much criticism from analysts, who said that the stress test is not strict enough.

Indeed, this is something that European Financial Forecast readers have known since the first stress test last summer.

For a unique perspective on Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, we invite you to read a free 6-page report by Elliott Wave International’s European Financial Forecast editor Brian Whitmer, “Credit Crisis in Europe.” Brian has been anticipating and tracking the credit contagion across Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and other EU nations for months.

Below is a quick excerpt from this report, written just after the first stress test. For details on how to read it in full now, look below.
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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.

A Four-Chart Lesson in Spotting Trade Setups

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.

The Personality of Stock Market Waves

The Personality of Stock Market Waves

Elliott waves don’t merely reflect prices plotted over time. Each wave
has its own “personality.” Listen to this video by EWI’s Wayne Gorman
to learn more about the psychology behind the waves and how it affects your
investment decisions.

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This video was taken from the free 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.

Watch your free videos now >>

Already a Club EWI member? Access
the video series Learn the Why, What and How of Elliott Wave Analysis here.

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

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.

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

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.

Download 14 Critical Lessons Every Trader Should Know

Dear Trader,

You know how difficult it can be to successfully trade the markets. And although the volatility that we’re seeing lately offers great opportunities, it can also add to a trader’s frustration. That’s why our friends at Elliott Wave International are releasing one of their most popular trading eBooks, The Best of Trader’s Classroom, free through May 16.

Since 1999, EWI Senior Analyst and trading instructor Jeffrey Kennedy has produced dozens of Trader’s Classroom lessons exclusively for his subscribers. EWI reviewed over 100 lessons and selected these 14 that offer the most critical information that every trader should know.

Now you can download these valuable lessons in their 45-page Best of Trader’s Classroom eBook, free.

You’ll learn:

• Why Emotional Discipline Is Key to Success
• When to Place a Trade
• How to Set Protective Stops
• What It Takes to be a Consistently Successful Trader
• And 10 more!

Download Your Free The Best of Trader’s Classroom eBook Today
(Don’t hesitate! This offer expires May 16.)

Regards,

Alan

About the Publisher, Elliott Wave International
Founded in 1979 by Robert R. Prechter Jr., Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private around the world.

How To Use Fibonacci Ratios in the Real World

By Elliott Wave International

What tools help you with the difficult task of identifying the market trend, riding it, and getting out before it reverses?

Consider Fibonacci ratios: Mathematical proportions by which moves on a market chart relate to each other. Fibonacci mathematics is an integral part of Elliott wave analysis; Frost & Prechter’s classic “Elliott Wave Principle — Key to Market Behavior” has an entire chapter on it.

And here’s an excerpt from a free Club EWI report on the subject. Enjoy — and for details on how to read the entire report free, look below.

How To Apply Fibonacci Math to Real-World Trading
(excerpt; full copy here)
By Jeffrey Kennedy
EWI Senior Tutorial Instructor
EWI Senior Commodity Analyst

It’s hard to imagine a wrong way to apply Fibonacci ratios or multiples to financial markets, and new ways are being tested every day. Let’s look at just some of the ways that I apply Fibonacci math in my own analysis. …

Elliotticians often calculate Fibonacci extensions to project the length of Elliott waves. For example, third waves are most commonly a 1.618 Fibonacci multiple of wave one, and waves C and A of corrective wave patterns often reach equality (Figures 7-3 and 7-4).

One approach I like and have used for a number of years is a “reverse Fibonacci” application… (Continue reading this free report now with a free Club EWI password.)

The 2011 Socionomics Summit in Atlanta: It will change that way you think about markets.

The Socionomics Conference offers the latest insights from this groundbreaking new science.

Socionomics is the fruition of Bob Prechter’s insight regarding social mood. This comprehensive theory is helping investors connect the dots from the past to the future to where they are right now. In this first-ever Socionomics Conference, Prechter will host speakers who are using socionomics in their work and research. Elliott Wave International has made it as easy as possible to attend — including an exceptional price, convenient travel access (Atlanta), and a venue close to the airport. Click here for information.

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The coming 2011 Socionomics Summit on April 16 in Atlanta will indeed discover “New Horizons” — which is precisely what this emerging science has done time and again in recent years.

Attendees will be able to hear, ask questions of, and mingle with 14 of the foremost academics, writers and researchers who contribute to the science of socionomics. Even now, their innovative work is helping to define the critical role that social mood plays in human affairs. The featured speakers include:

• Successful hedge fund manager Scott Reamer
• Indiana University professors Johan Bollen and Huina Mao, contributing authors of the widely-reported academic paper “Twitter mood predicts the stock market”
• Scholar and best-selling author of Mood Matters, John Casti
• Emmy award-winning Minyanville sage Kevin Depew
• The man who discovered socionomics, Robert Prechter

This list is just the beginning. Speakers also include the Socionomics Institute’s research fellow at the University of Cambridge, Matt Lampert, as well as in-house researchers Alan Hall and Euan Wilson, whose research continues to demonstrate how social mood drives social action.

Please know that the phrase “new horizons” is no exaggeration. As published in The Socionomist, our recent studies of social mood have anticipated a mind-boggling series of global trends and events:

• “War and Peace in the Middle East” (Dec. 2010) was weeks ahead of the violence and shockwaves of protest that changed the political landscapes of Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and beyond.
• “Authoritarianism” (April 2010) forecasted increased internet regulation and warned of a possible cyber war — months before the WikiLeaks controversy broke.
• “The Coming Collapse of Modern Prohibition” (July 2009) anticipated the dramatic escalation of violence in Mexico’s deadly drug war. It also called for growing American tolerance of marijuana use.
• “Authoritarianism” (April 2010) warned of unprecedented new forms of government control even in ostensibly free countries like the U.S. Since then, news events include the advent of secret government GPS controls on cars, airport pat-downs and document checks on train travel inside U.S. borders.
• “The Developing European Tinderbox” (Dec. 2009) preceded the biggest story in Europe in 2010 — the re-kindling of old ethnic and national hostilities and the possible coming dissolution of the euro.

For more information about the 2011 Socionomics Summit: New Horizons in the Study of Social Mood, simply follow this link.

What Most People Don’t Realize About The Fed’s Superpowers

Bob Prechter’s Conquer The Crash reveals whether the Fed really can rescue the US economy

By Elliott Wave International

Since its creation in 1913, the primary intended role of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank has been that of protector. In theory, the central bank was bestowed with the power to shape monetary policy in a way that would keep both booms and busts in check. The two main tools at its disposal — interest rates and money creation — would provide a “ceiling of normalcy” above expansions AND a “net of safety” below contractions.

To this day, the financial mainstream holds great faith in the Fed’s ability to fulfill its save-the-day duties — as these recent news items make plain:

• “Why Raising Fed Funds Rate Is Positive For Equities.” (Seeking Alpha)
• “Fed’s Moves Lift All Asset Classes.” (Associated Press)
• “US Stocks Erasing Losses: The aggressive moves of the Fed have been an important driver for the stabilization of stock prices.” (Bloomberg)

But of all the variables the Fed creators took into account, there’s one glaring factor they neglected to consider: Namely, it cannot force consumers to spend, creditors to lend, or businesses to borrow. The events of 2007-2009 “credit crunch” and the subsequent “Great Recession” made that obvious. Remember how the government was upset at banks for sitting on the bailout funds instead of lending them out to consumers? And consumers weren’t exactly lining up on the street to get a loan, either.

The Fed’s inability to change social mood is the central theme in Chapter 13 of EWI President Bob Prechter’s NY Times business bestseller book Conquer the Crash. There, Bob describes the Fed’s strategy of lowering the federal funds rate to stimulate spending to be as effective as “pushing on a string.” Writes Bob:

“The primary basis for today’s belief in perpetual prosperity and inflation with an occasional recession is what I call the ‘Potent Directors Fallacy.’ It is nearly impossible to find a treatise on macroeconomics today that does not assert or assume that the Federal Reserve Board has learned to control both our money and our economy. Many believe that it also possesses the immense power to manipulate the stock market. The very idea that it can do these things is false.”

And so begins one of the most groundbreaking studies into the very real INABILITY of the Fed to fell the great bears of economic declines, or to feed the great bulls of economic vigor.

The best part is, you can read Chapter 13 of Conquer the Crash in its entirety FREE via a Club EWI resource “You Can Survive And Prosper In A Deflationary Depression.” The free report also includes SEVEN other chapters of Conquer the Crash that shed equal light on some of the most misleading notions of mainstream economic wisdom.