Alan's Finance Blog

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.
_________________________________________

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.
______________________________

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.

Raising The BAR: Bar Patterns & Trading Opportunities

How a 3-in-1 formation in cotton “triggered” the January selloff
April 17, 2010

By Nico Isaac

For Elliott Wave International’s chief commodity analyst Jeffrey Kennedy, the single most important thing for a trader to have is STYLE– and no, we’re not talking business casual versus sporty chic. Trading “style,” as in any of the following: top/bottom picker, strictly technical, cyclical, or pattern watcher.

Jeffrey himself is (and always has been) a “trend” trader, meaning: he uses the Wave Principle as his primary tool, with a few secondary means of select technical studies. Such as: Bar Patterns. And Jeffrey counts one bar pattern in particular as his favorite: the 3-in-1.

Here’s the gist: The 3-in-1 bar pattern occurs when the price range of the fourth bar (named, the “set-up” bar) engulfs the highs and lows of the last three bars. When prices penetrate above the high — or — below the low of the set-up bar, it often signals the resumption of the larger trend. Where this breach occurs is called the “trigger bar.” On this, the following diagram offers a clear illustration:

Now, how about a real world example of the 3-1 formation in the recent history of a major commodity market? Well, that’s where the picture below comes in. It’s a close-up of Cotton from the February 5, 2010 Daily Futures Junctures.

As you can see, a classic 3-in-1 bar pattern emerged in Cotton at the very start of the New Year. Within a few day the trigger bar closed below the low of the set-up bar, signaling the market’s return to the downside. Immediately after, cotton prices plunged in a powerful selloff to four-month lows.

February arrived, and with it the end of cotton’s decline. In the same chart you can see how Jeffrey used the Wave Principle to calculate a potential downside target for the market at 66.33. This area marked the point where Wave (5) equaled wave (1), a reliable for impulse patterns. Since then a winning streak in cotton has carried prices to new contract highs.

This example shows the power of a fully-equipped technical analysis “toolbox.” By using the Wave Principle with Bar Patterns, one has a solid, objective chance of anticipating the trend in volatile markets.

And in a 15-page report titled “How To Use Bar Patterns To Spot Trade Set-ups,” Jeffrey Kennedy identifies the top SIX Bar Patterns included in his personal repertoire. They are Double Inside Days, Arrows, Popguns, 3-in-1, Reverse 3-in-1, and Outside-Inside Reversal.

In this comprehensive collection, Jeffrey provides each pattern with a definition, illustrations of its form, lessons on its application and how to incorporate it into Elliott wave analysis, historical examples of its occurrence in major commodity markets, and ultimately — compelling proof of how it identified swift and sizable moves.

Best of all is, you can read the entire, 15-page report today at absolutely no cost. You read that right. The limited “How To Use Bar Patterns To Spot Trade Setups” is available with any free, Club EWI membership.

Blaming “Market Manipulators” For Losses is a Huge Obstacle to Success

To win, you must accept the fact that losses are part of the game.

In 1984, Elliott Wave International’s founder and president Robert Prechter won the U.S. Trading Championship, setting a new all-time profit record of 444.4% in a monitored real-money options account in 4 months. In the average 4-month contest, over 75% of contestants, mostly professionals, fail to report profits.

In November 1986, in his monthly Elliott Wave Theorist Prechter published a Special Report titled, “What A Trader Really Needs To Be Successful” and gave 5 important tips to would-be market speculators. You can read them now, free (details below) — but here’s Bob’s fourth point:

4. Accept the Fact that Losses Are Part of the Game.

There are many denials of reality which automatically disqualify millions of people from joining the ranks of successful speculators. For instance, to moan that “pools,” “manipulators,” “insiders,” “they,” “the big boys” or “program trading” (known today as “high-frequency trading” — Ed.) are to blame for one’s losses is a common fault. Anyone who utters such a conviction is doomed before he starts. But my observation, after eleven years “in the business,” is that the biggest obstacle to successful speculation is the failure merely even to recognize and accept the simple fact that losses are part of the game, and that they must be accommodated.

The perfect trading system does not exist. Expecting, or even hoping for, perfection is a guarantee of failure. Speculation is akin to batting in baseball. A player hitting .300 is good. A player hitting .400 is great. But even the great player fails to hit 60% of the time! He even strikes out often. But he still earns six figures a year, because although not perfect, he has approached the best that can be achieved. You don’t have to be perfect to win in the markets, either; you “merely” have to be better than almost everybody else, and that’s hard enough.

Practically speaking, you must include an objective money management system when formulating your trading method in the first place. There are many ways to do it. Some methods use stops. If stops are impractical (such as with options), you may decide to risk only small amounts of total capital at a time. After all is said and done, learning to handle losses will be your greatest triumph.

The last on my list is [the point] I have never heard mentioned before. …

Keep reading this free Special Report titled, “What A Trader Really Needs To Be Successful” now — all you need to do is create a free Club EWI profile.