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The
Trend
Your
ability to spot clear trends, up or down as well as in virtually
any world market will make the difference for you and will decide
whether you fail or succeed in the field of e-trading. Thus,
before making any trades, you should at least learn about the
fundamentals of trend analysis. Depending on your own personal
investment perspectives, it is possible to use technical analysis
on almost any time scale---from monthly, to weekly, to intraday
and even hourly.
Good
traders slowly learn how to look for diverging and repetitive
patterns which will eventually guide them to investment success.
In brief, there are two basic tools for evaluating future
performance of almost everything---from shares, to precious
metals, to currencies and almost all other trading
"universes"---fundamental as well as technical
analysis.
Traders
are generally not "long term" holders of positions and
the present research tools (charts which represent trends,
volume, open interest, etc.) are more than adequate to do the
job. The old adage of "if in doubt---stay out!" should
always prevail and if there is no clearly defined trend (either
way-up or down) then there is no reason to rush into and take an
ill-conceived investment position.
JMFS
provides its clients with access to the latest state-of-the-art
technology which will result in a better understanding of how
markets function. For those investors who wish to further broaden
their present horizons, we submit below, a brief summary of some
of the most important investment theories.
The
Basic Theories
Dow
Theory
The
Dow Theory is one the oldest technical trading concepts based
upon the performance of the 30 share Dow Jones Industrial
Average. The concept is essentially that the market is in a basic
upward trend if one of these averages advances above a previous
important high, accompanied or followed by a similar advance in
the other. When both averages dip below previous important lows,
this is regarded as confirmation of a downward trend.
The
Dow Jones Index itself is just one type of market index which
implies that the prices within it will fully reflect all existing
information. Knowledge available to participants (traders,
analysis, portfolio managers, market strategists and investors)
is already discounted in the price action. Movements caused by
unpredictable events such as "acts of god" will be
contained within the overall trend. Developed primarily around
stock market averages, the Dow Theory holds that prices tend to
progress into wave patterns which tend to consist of three basic
types of magnitude--primary, secondary and minor. The time frames
involved range from less than three weeks to over a year. The
theory also identified retracement patterns, which are common
levels by which trends pare their moves. Such retracements are
33%, 50% and 66%.
Fibonacci
Retracement
The
popular retracement series is entirely based on the mathematical
ratios. It is used for determining how far a price rebounded from
its underlying trend.
Thousands
of years ago, mathematicians discovered that a certain number
kept appearing throughout the natural world. It was the ratio
describing how flower petals grew around their central stem, how
a snail's shell swirled around its origin and how a galaxy
extended from its core. More importantly for the financial
community, this ratio described how consecutive numbers related
to each other. This "golden ratio" of 0.618 was applied
to numbers by the thirteenth century mathematician Leonardo
Fibonacci.
The
Fibonacci sequence starts like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21,
34, 55, 89, 144. where any number in the sequence is equal to the
sum of the preceding two numbers. The ratio of any two
consecutive numbers starts out by oscillating around 0.618 and
approaches it exactly as the sequence continues.
Actually,
Fibonacci numbers are really one aspect of trading with Elliot
Waves and Gann Angles. As we know, markets trend up and down,
pause to retrace (consolidate, correct) then continue onward.
These retracements often reclaim constant percentages of the
original trend's move and can be predicted with good accuracy by
the Fibonacci sequence. The ratios of consecutive numbers at the
start of the sequence are 1.00, .50 and .67. Market technicians
have long known that market retracements tend to end at the 50%
level as well as at one and two thirds. A retracement of 100% of
the move provides a very strong support/resistance line. All of
these are Fibonacci levels. The one and two thirds levels are
really approximations of the Fibonacci ratio 61.8% and it's
inverse. Fibonacci levels are simply refined versions of what
traders have been using for years.
Fibonacci
retracement levels are really simple tools yet they are effective
on their own. Applying them to Elliot and Gann makes them much
more powerful. Elliot wave counts tend to end at Fibonacci
levels. Gann angles are drawn with slopes that equal Fibonacci
ratios. The most Fibonacci retracement levels are 38.2%, 50%and
61.8%.
Elliot
Wave Theory
Ralph
Nelson Elliott, developed the Elliott Wave principle in the late
1920s by discovering that stock markets, thought to behave in a
somewhat chaotic manner, in fact, did not. They did, however,
trade in what he called repetitive cycles, which he discovered
were the emotions of investors as a cause of outside influences,
or predominant psychology of the masses at the time. He had
stated that the upward and downward swings of the mass psychology
always showed up in the same repetitive patterns, which were then
divided into patterns he termed Waves.
The
Theory is somewhat based upon the Dow Theory in as much as the
price movements also move in waves. It was understood by the
technicians at the time that because of the fractal nature of the
markets, Elliot was able to breakdown and analyse the markets in
much greater detail. This allowed him to spot unique
characteristics of wave patterns and making detailed market
predictions based on the patterns he had identified. Fractals are
mathematical structures, which on an ever-smaller scale
infinitely repeat themselves. The patterns that Elliott
discovered are built in the same way. An impulsive wave, which
goes with the main trend, always shows five waves in its pattern.
On a smaller scale, within each of the impulsive waves of the
before mentioned impulse, again five waves will be found. Price
actions are divided into trends, and corrections, or sideways
movements. Trends show the main direction of prices, while
corrections move against the trend. Elliot labeled these
Impulsive waves and Corrective waves.
It
is difficult to describe such theories in a language which most
traders might be able to more easily comprehend. For example, the
interpretation of the Elliot Wave Theory is as follows:
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Every
action is followed by a reaction. There are five waves in the
direction of the main trend followed by three corrective
waves (a "5-3" move). A 5-3 move completes a cycle.
This 5-3 move then becomes two subdivisions of the next
higher 5-3 wave. The underlying 5-3 pattern rema
ins constant,
though the time span of each may vary. Let's have a look at
the following chart made up of eight waves (five up and three
down) which are labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, a, b, and c.
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You
can see that the three waves in the direction of the trend
are impulses and therefore these waves also have five waves.
The waves against the trend are corrections and are composed
of three waves.
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In
the 70s, the Wave Principle gained popularity through the
work of Frost and Prechter. They published a legendary book
on the Elliott Wave, entitled The Elliott Wave Principle -
The Key to Stock Market Profits. In this book, the authors
predicted the bull market of the 1970s both Robert Prechter
called the crash of 1987.
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The
corrective wave formation normally has three, in some cases
five or more distinct price movements, two in the direction
of the main correction ( A and C) and one against it (B).
Wave 2 and 4 in the above picture are corrections. These
waves have the following structure:
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Note
that, these waves A and C go in the direction of the shorter term
trend, and therefore are impulsive and composed of five waves,
which is shown in the picture above.
An
impulse wave formation followed by a corrective wave, form an
Elliott wave degree, consisting of trend and counter trend.
Although the patterns pictured above are bullish, the same
applies for bear markets, where the main trend is down. The
Elliott Wave theory has assigned a series of categories to the
waves in order of the largest to the smallest. They are:
| . Grand Super cycle |
. Minor |
| . Super cycle |
. Minute |
| . Cycle |
. Minuette |
| . Primary |
. Sub-Minuette |
| . Intermediate |
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To
use the theory in everyday trading, the trader will determine the
Main Wave or Super cycle, and then goes long and then sells the
position or shorts the position as the pattern runs out of steam
and a reversal is eminent..
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