Median Line Study

Your Cheatin’ Chart Will Tell On You
How the Dow Has Really Performed When Measured in Real Money (Gold)
March 30, 2010

By Elliott Wave International

 

“Your cheating chart will tell on you.”

Hank Williams may not have known about Elliott waves, but he did know when a story doesn’t add up.

Such is the case with the nominal rise of the Dow Jones Industrials from 2000 to 2007. In the language of country music, this stock index has a “Cheatin’ Chart” — it doesn’t tell the real story.

Download Robert Prechter’s FREE 40-Page Gold and Silver eBook. This valuable ebook explores the role of gold in today’s markets like no other resource has attempted. You will get more than Prechter’s long-term outlook on gold and silver; you’ll also learn how gold still plays an important role in determining the real value behind nominal share prices. Learn more, and download your Gold and Silver eBook here.

You don’t have to tell Bob Prechter this: He knows. A simple price chart of the Dow is, well, a bit too simple. First Bob explains that pricing via fiat currency is not the same as pricing the Dow in terms of real money (namely gold). Then he shows the difference.

For six long years, we’ve had declining real values in stocks. Since the 2002 bottom, we’ve had rising values in nominal terms. This is the same set-up that we saw in the early ’70s except for one thing: it’s bigger. . .Ultimately, real prices are leading dollar prices, and we’re going to see a tremendous drop in the dollar price of the Dow as well, because I’m making a case that this is a much bigger top.

Elliott Wave Theorist, December 2006

If gold were our money, the major stock market indexes would have declined relentlessly from 2000 to the present, with a muted bounce in 2003. There would be no arguing the point of whether a bull or bear market was in force.

Elliott Wave Theorist, March 2006

This “oh-so-true” chart of the DJIA priced in gold showed the path that the “cheatin’” nominal Dow would eventually follow. Our forecast was that it’s just a matter of time. This analysis has played out as expected several times since the 1999 high in the Dow Jones Industrials.

The July 1999 top in the real Dow was the first in a long succession of rolling blow-offs that (The Elliott Wave Financial Forecast) successfully identified From the DJIA’s orthodox top in 2000 to the NASDAQ’s all-time high several weeks later to the top in residential real estate prices in 2005 to the nominal peaks in major stock indexes in 2007 to the wild commodity spikes in 2008, EWFF managed to anticipate many of the markets major trend changes. . .We owe these forecasting successes to the Wave Principle and its reflection of market psychology and its foreshadowing of larger social forces.

Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, July 2009

The monthly Elliott Wave Financial Forecast keeps a tireless eye on stocks, real estate, commodities and much more. We also keep track of the precious metals and the dollar — and even keep our finger on the pulse of developing social trends.

The quotes above confirm the power of Elliott wave analysis in identifying market turns in various asset classes.

Download Robert Prechter’s FREE 40-Page Gold and Silver eBook. This valuable ebook explores the role of gold in today’s markets like no other resource has attempted. You will get more than Prechter’s long-term outlook on gold and silver; you’ll also learn how gold still plays an important role in determining the real value behind nominal share prices. Learn more, and download your Gold and Silver eBook here.

Elliott Wave International (EWI) is the world’s largest market forecasting firm. EWI’s 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. EWI’s educational services include conferences, workshops, webinars, video tapes, special reports, books and one of the internet’s richest free content programs, Club EWI.

I tend to read a lot of information on the economy, the markets, where this “Great Recession” is likely headed and such. Every once in a while I find a resource that gives a very convincing argument as to why we are here in this financial mess and what may lie ahead. I thoroughly enjoy the articles that are well thought out and backed by numbers. This report is certainly that. Robert Prechter’s work at Elliott Wave International is very fascinating to me. I do not claim to know much about Elliott Wave, but his work expands well beyond it and this 34-page e-book is a good example.

The writings are based on excerpts of Prechter’s work from 2002 to 2009. Think how much things have changed over that period!

Link to download free: Understanding the Fed

It’s not an easy read, make sure you are alert and able to absorb a lot of information when you read it. The book discusses these questions:

• What really is “money”?
• How the Fed manufactures money.
• Can the Fed manipulate stocks or the economy?
• What makes deflation likely today?
• Can the Fed stop deflation?
• If deflation takes hold – what happens after?
• If not deflation – then what?

You may not agree with his views or conclusions, but it is certainly food for thought.

Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend.

Here is the link again: Understanding the Fed

Keep drawing the lines,

Greg Fisher

www.median-line-study.com

Free charts: http://www.medianlinestudy.com/free-charts.html

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Gold’s safe-haven status is based on hype, not history

By Nico Isaac

As I sat down to watch the Oscar pre-show on Sunday night, March 7, one word was repeatedly used to describe the celebrity starlets and their designer duds: GOLD. Gold bustiers and gold lame skirts, shiny gun-metal dresses and glittery sequined gowns all basking in the golden shadow of the final golden statue.

Everywhere you look, from the Red Carpet to Wall Street, gold is definitely in “fashion.” As for why, one word comes to mind: safe-haven. See, according to the mainstream financial experts, the more unstable the global economy, the greater the appeal for the precious metal.

And, with a staggering 17% unemployment rate in the United States, alongside slumping real estate sales, Eurozone weakness, the Greece debt debacle, and so on — the only thing going up is gold’s supposed disaster premium. Here, take these recent news items for example:

• “Bullion Sales Hit Record In Stampede To Safety.” (Financial Times)
• “Gold Ticks Higher On Safe Haven Buying. The risk trade is resuming.” (AP)
•  “Gold Rose to 6 ½ Week Highs as the metal benefits from fears over financial instability in general. The market is looking for some security with gold.” (Reuters)
• “Gold Rush: This is a new round of safe haven buying.” (Bloomberg)

There’s just one problem: The correlation between a falling economy AND rising gold prices is based solely on hype, NOT history.

Download Robert Prechter’s FREE 40-Page Gold and Silver eBook. Is gold a simple buy-and-hold at today’s prices? The independent insights in this valuable ebook deliver Prechter’s complete analysis and help you decide how to – and how not to – incorporate gold and silver successfully into your own investment strategy. Learn more, and download your Gold and Silver eBook here.

Case in point: In the March 2008 Elliott Wave Theorist (republished in his 40-page Gold and Silver eBook), Elliott Wave International President Bob Prechter presents an indisputable case AGAINST the safe-haven status of gold.

The first piece of evidence: The following table showing gold’s performance during the 11 officially recognized recessions beginning in 1945.

Prechter also plotted the Dow Jones Industrial Average into the same period and made this startling discovery: The average total return for the Dow during recessions since 1945 is 6.89%. Taking into account modern transaction costs, the Dow actually beats gold with a 6.87% return.

The most powerful myth-debunking punch of all, though, came via the second chart of gold’s performance — this time during periods of financial growth.

In Prechter’s own words:

“All huge gains in gold have come while the economy was expanding… The idea that gold reliably rises during recessions and depressions is wrong. In fact, like most such passionately accepted lore, it’s backwards.”

Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t own gold in a financial crisis. On the contrary: In chapter 22 of his Wall Street Journal business bestseller, Conquer the Crash, Prechter lists 5 reasons why “you should buy gold and silver anyway.” Gold is “real money,” after all! It’s just that, despite widespread beliefs to the contrary, you shouldn’t expect “huge gains in gold” when the economy contracts.

Download Robert Prechter’s FREE 40-Page Gold and Silver eBook. Is gold a simple buy-and-hold at today’s prices? The independent insights in this valuable ebook deliver Prechter’s complete analysis and help you decide how to – and how not to – incorporate gold and silver successfully into your own investment strategy. Learn more, and download your Gold and Silver eBook here.

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

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.

* * *

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.

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