Fibonacci Techniques for Math Geeks -- and Everyone Else, Too

March 29, 2010
By Editorial Staff

The word Fibonacci (pronounced fib-oh-notch-ee) can draw either blank stares or an enthusiastic response. There's hardly any in-between ground. But for those who ask how an esoteric mathematical relationship can apply to price charts and trading, here's a quick lesson. Everyone who uses Elliott wave analysis will sooner or later want to try using Fibo techniques, and Elliott Wave International's Jeff Kennedy has written about five of them in a Trader's Classroom column. For an example of why people are so fascinated by Fibonacci, read part of Kennedy's article here:

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How to Apply Fibonacci Math to Real-World Trading

Have you ever given an expensive toy to a small child and watched while the child had less fun playing with the toy than with the box that it came in? In fact, I can remember some of the boxes I played with as a child that became spaceships, time machines or vehicles to use on dinosaur safaris.

In many ways, Fibonacci math is just like the box kids enjoy playing with imaginatively for hours on end. 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 I apply Fibonacci math in my own analysis.

Fibonacci Retracements

Financial markets demonstrate an uncanny propensity to reverse at certain Fibonacci levels. The most common Fibonacci ratios I use to forecast retracements are .382, .500 and .618. On occasion, I find .236 and .786 useful, but I prefer to stick with the big three. You can imagine how helpful these can be: Knowing where a corrective move is likely to end often identifies high-probability trade setups (Figures 7-1 and 7-2).

Figure 7-1


Figure 7-2




Kennedy then goes on to explain Fibonacci extensions, circles, fans and time, using 11 charts to show what he means. Whether or not you are a math geek, you can learn a lot from this six-page introduction to Fibonacci math.

Get Your Fibonacci Techniques Right Here. Jeffrey Kennedy has been using and teaching these techniques for years, and he has written a quick description of five Fibonacci techniques in his Trader's Classroom column -- now available to you for free by signing up as a Club EWI member. Read more about the 6-page report here.

Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the worlds largest market forecasting firm. EWIs 20-plus analysts provide around-the-clock forecasts of every major market in the world via the internet and proprietary web systems like Reuters and Bloomberg. EWIs educational services include conferences, workshops, webinars, video tapes, special reports, books and one of the internets richest free content programs, Club EWI.

Wave Principle Crash Course: There's No Going Back

Free video tutorial available to all Club EWI members
By Nico Isaac

For over ten decades, the mainstream financial world has embraced the view that external news events drive trend changes in the markets. In less than ten minutes, EWI's senior tutorial instructor Wayne Gorman shatters that very idea into a fine dust, swept away into thin air.

In part one of his exclusive, three-part Club EWI video series "Why Use The Wave Principle," Wayne first assesses the pitfalls of relying on macroeconomic models to forecast; namely: "An investor is lured into the market at just the worst time, when it's time to sell, and forced out just at the best time to buy."

As for real world examples of this happening, Wayne spans three hundred years of financial history to reveal how the most pivotal economic, political, and environmental events failed to alter the course of their respective markets. Here, the free video includes groundbreaking charts on these (and more) well known episodes:

* The S&P 500 and Enron from 2000-2002: The stock market ROSE and continued to proceed upward AFTER the largest US corporate scandal and bankruptcy ever (at the time).
* The Dow Industrials and GDP quarterly data from 1970 to early 2000s: After the release of major negative GDP numbers, the market for the most part ROSE, just the opposite of what most market analysts and investors expect.
* The Dow and profound political events over the last 80 years: In the 1930s and 1940s, a series of negative incidents -- i.e. Hitler rising to power, World War II, and the Holocaust -- preceded a powerful uptrend in stocks all the way into the 1960s.
* Stock market charts of the five countries most affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand). Four out of the five ROSE after the natural disaster...



Believe it or not, we've only scratched the surface. In his myth-busting, free video "Why Use the Wave Principle," Wayne Gorman presents a total of 40 charts that capture failed fundamental analysis of the world's leading financial markets. Wayne recalls this expression from a famous, Nobel Prize winning economist:

"Economic reasoning will be of no value in cases of uncertainty."

And he offers this response:

"But isn't that what we have in financial markets: cases of uncertainty? We need a different type of reasoning, one that will help us to avoid the pitfalls shown on the previous charts. That's why the Wave Principle is so important. It offers a unique perspective and a market discipline of rules and guidelines that help investors avoid buying at tops and liquidating at bottoms. It helps to explain and understand trends before they happen."

The flaw in Economic 101, cause-and-effect theory is one of the easiest things to prove. But it's also one of the hardest things for many investors to accept. Now is the time to do so. Watch the free "Why Use the Wave Principle" video in its entirety today at absolutely no cost. Simply sign on to join the rapidly expanding Club EWI and take advantage of the amazing educational benefits membership has to offer.

Nico Isaac writes for Elliott Wave International, a market forecasting and technical analysis firm.

What Does NOT Move Markets? Examining 8 Claims of Market Efficiency

By Susan Walker

If everyone says that shocks from outside the financial system -- so-called exogenous shocks -- can affect it for better or worse, they must be right.

It just sounds so darned logical, right? Economists believe this trope to be true, mainly because they believe that investors are rational thinkers who re-evaluate their positions after every new bit of relevant information turns up.

Beginning to sound slightly impossible? Well, yes.

It turns out that logic is exactly what's missing from this it-feels-so-right idea of rational reaction to exogenous shocks. Read an excerpt from Robert Prechter's February 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist to see how Prechter deals with this widely held belief.

Find out what really moves markets -- download the free 118-page Independent Investor eBook. The Independent Investor eBook shows you exactly what moves markets and what doesn't. You might be surprised to discover it's not the Fed or "surprise" news events. Learn more, and download your free ebook here.

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Excerpted from Prechter's February 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist, published Feb. 19, 2010

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) argues that as new information enters the marketplace, investors revalue stocks accordingly. … In such a world, the market would fluctuate narrowly around equilibrium as minor bits of news about individual companies mostly canceled each other out. Then important events, which would affect the valuation of the market as a whole, would serve as “shocks” causing investors to adjust prices to a new level, reflecting that new information. One would see these reactions in real time, and investigators of market history would face no difficulties in identifying precisely what new information caused the change in prices. …

This is a simple idea and simple to test. But almost no one ever bothers to test it. According to the mindset of conventional economists, no one needs to test it; it just feels right; it must be right. It’s the only model anyone can think of. But socionomists [those who use the Wave Principle to make social predictions] have tested this idea multiple ways. And the result is not pretty for the theories that rely upon it.

The tests that we will examine are not rigorous or statistical. Our time and resources are limited. But in refuting a theory, extreme rigor is unnecessary. If someone says, “All leaves are green,” all one need do is show him a red one to refute the claim. I hope when we are done with our brief survey, you will see that the ubiquitous claim we challenge is more akin to economists saying “All leaves are made of iron.” We will be unable to find a single example from nature that fits.

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In his February 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist, Prechter then goes on to show charts that examine each of these claims that encompass both economic and political events:

Claim #1: “Interest rates drive stock prices.”
Claim #2: “Rising oil prices are bearish for stocks.”
Claim #3: “An expanding trade deficit is bad for a nation’s economy and therefore bearish for stock prices.”
Claim #4: “Earnings drive stock prices.”
Claim #5: “GDP drives stock prices.”
Claim #6: “Wars are bullish/bearish for stock prices.”
Claim #7: “Peace is bullish for stocks.”
Claim #8: “Terrorist attacks would cause the stock market to drop.”

To protect your personal finances, it's important to think independently from the crowd, particularly when the crowd buys into what economists say.

Find out what really moves markets -- download the free 118-page Independent Investor eBook. The Independent Investor eBook shows you exactly what moves markets and what doesn't. You might be surprised to discover it's not the Fed or "surprise" news events. Learn more, and download your free ebook here.

Susan C. Walker writes for Elliott Wave International, a market forecasting and technical analysis company.