Great Insights by Elliot Wave International's Market Watch
Bob Prechter has done a lot of thinking about how to trade successfully. One startling conclusion he's come to: traders should often avoid using stops. Here's why: If you analyze the market you're trading, you shouldn't need a stop to tell you when to get out of the trade. In fact, the point of using Elliott wave analysis is to determine where the market is in a wave count, so that you are able to see where the trend is most likely to turn. (This excerpt is taken from the March 2003 Elliott Wave Theorist, the publication Bob has been writing for more than 25 years.
Fiscal Budget Restraint
It's been less than a month since the proposed fiscal year 2006 Federal budget was in the news. If you can barely recall the story -- or don't remember it at all -- that tells you have fast the news coverage came and went, which must have been a relief for the politicians. Their worst fear should be that taxpayers would look long enough to find the countless examples of the absurd and outrageous in the small print.
The most recent GDP figures seem to echo what Fed Chairman Greenspan said in February in his semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress. For brevity's sake I'll condense his opinion about the U.S. economy into three words: All is well.
This is What REAL Credit Growth Looks Like!
Credit Growth -The Federal Reserve keeps thorough records of U.S. consumer credit, and most of the data goes back 30 years or longer. They put it all on the Internet, too. Scroll through the numbers, and before long you'll have what amounts to a crash course in how rapidly the debt levels have grown during just one generation.
Performance, Fortune & the U.S. President?
Many people study U.S. political history, others study U.S. economic history, and a relative few individuals look closely enough at both to see the strong connection -- specifically, the link between the performance of the stock market and the fortunes of the president.
A Trillion Barrels of Oil... and Prices Rise?
The notion of a "coming oil shortage" has been around for decades. I remember the lines at the gas pumps in 1973-74 all too clearly, because I had just gotten my driver's license. The economic wise men of the time made dire predictions. If they had been right, the world's oil supply would have been long gone by now.
What's Next For The Most "Feared" Politician on Wall Street?
Speculation about that issue ended on Nov. 2, though there's never been any need to speculate about which politician is most feared by Wall Street - New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer gets the vote hands down. That's because he successfully carried out that most effective of all political attention grabbers, namely a crusade against big guys on behalf of the little guy.
Betting the House on the Stock Market?
Homeowners are "pulling money out of their property at a greater rate than ever," and now that the toothpaste is out of the tube, someone thinks somebody needs to do something. "The consequences of this problem can be so devastating," said an NASD official, "that we'd really like to address this to keep it from becoming a big problem."
"People should have control over their own retirement funds." This simple idea should get vigorous nods from anyone who believes in individual autonomy and personal responsibility.Unfortunately, no idea remains simple once it enters the political arena. The current legislative debate about Social Security -- and how to fund it -- is neither simple nor clear. |
