Posts Tagged ‘Technical Analysis’
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. |
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International. EWI is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors 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.)
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline How To Use Fibonacci Ratios in the Real World. EWI is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
Video: The Versatility of the Wave Principle
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.
Why weekly charts work
Many traders get so involved with the market on a daily or even an intraday basis, that they somehow lose out on the bigger picture. Weekly charts are enormously helpful in giving clues to the future direction of the market.
In today’s video we examine one of the biggest markets in the world, the S&P 500, using a weekly chart. The video runs about two minutes in length and I think you will find it both educational and informative.
As always our videos are free to watch and there are no registration requirements.
Enjoy the video and be sure to share your thoughts.
http://www.ino.com/info/620/CD3336/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3
All the best,
Adam Hewison
President of INO.com
Co-founder of MarketClub
Slicing the Neckline: A Classic Technical Pattern Agrees with the Elliott Wave Count
By Elliott Wave International
In the August issue of his Elliott Wave Theorist, market forecaster Robert Prechter alerted readers that the U.S. stock market was slicing the neckline of a classic head-and-shoulders pattern in technical analysis, and that this may send the market into critical condition.
Prechter said that when the Elliott wave count and a head-and-shoulders pattern are saying the same thing about the stock market, it’s best to pay attention.
Here’s how the August issue of the Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, the sister publication to Prechter’s Theorist, described the head and shoulders pattern unfolding in the stock market:
“The weekly Dow chart [below] shows the development of an intermediate-term, head-and-shoulders pattern from the January high at 10,729.90 to the present. The January high marks the left shoulder, the April 26 high at 11,258 is the head, and the right shoulder is now ending. The April [Theorist] discussed the pertinent characteristics that Edwards and Magee used to define this technical pattern … all apply to the current formation. Observe how weekly stock trading volume has contracted during the development of the right shoulder, a necessary trait of this pattern. The downward-sloping neckline — exactly as on the big ten year pattern — displays market weakness, which is consistent with our interpretation of the wave structure.”
This chart shows the head-and-shoulders pattern.

Here’s what Robert Prechter himself said in a recent Elliott Wave Theorist:
“Generally, when the neckline slopes downward, the right shoulder does not rise to the level of the left shoulder …”
Please look at the chart again — then re-read Prechter’s quote.
This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline Slicing the Neckline: When the Market May Go into “Critical Condition”. EWI is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts lead by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.
Get Your Free Report: How to Use Bar Patterns to Spot Trade Setups

Greetings reader,
Our friends at Elliott Wave International, the world’s largest market forecasting firm, have just updated their free report, How to Use Bar Patterns to Spot Trade Setups. With thousands of downloads, “Bar Patterns” has always been a huge hit with traders. But now it’s been packed with even more ways you can use common bar patterns to spot high-probability trading opportunities: 30 charts across 15 pages!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn simple new ways to spot valuable trade setups in the charts you view every day.
Download Your Free Bar Patterns Report Now.
Warmest 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.
Get Your Free 50-Page Download: The Ultimate Technical Analysis Handbook
Today more and more investors are warming to the fact that psychology moves markets and therefore fundamental analysis, which fails to properly measure mass investor psychology, must be flawed.
Who can blame them? After all, fundamental analysis — based on past company earnings, rating agency projections and the like — proved to be of little value during the bust.
There is a better way.
Many investors who monitor investor sentiment readings, study Elliott wave patterns and employ other powerful technical indicators were — at very least — able to position themselves to survive the recent decline. Still others were able to turn crisis into opportunity and profit from the volatility.
How’d they do it?
Technical analysis.
You see, technical indicators remove the cloudy, bias-driven assumptions from your analysis and focus on the one thing that moves markets: investor psychology.
Past performance is not indicative of future results — and that’s where fundamental analysis goes wrong. It fails to factor in the psychology that not only moves markets up and down but also leads analysts to extrapolate the current or past trend into the future. That’s why fundamental analysts almost always miss major tops and bottoms.
Our friends over at Elliott Wave International employ the largest team of technical analysts in the world. They recognize that optimism peaks before market tops and pessimism troughs before market bottoms. They use powerful and sometimes unconventional tools to help identify psychological extremes that signal high-probability turning points.
EWI’s brand-new 50-page eBook, The Ultimate Technical Analysis Handbook, will show you the various methods of technical analysis they use every day and teach you how to use these powerful tools for yourself.
If you’re a technician, this eBook is perfect for you. If you’re a fundamentals follower, it’s more important than ever that you give technical analysis a closer look. Even if you never completely abandoned your fundamental indicators, you WILL benefit from drawing on these valuable technical tools.
Learn more about this free eBook, and download your copy here.
