Please join me to consider a time in the stock market that lasted just under three years: 32 months, to be precise.
During this period a series of powerful rallies stand out clearly on a price chart. The shortest of these rallies was four weeks, the longest more than five months.
I can even list seven of these rally episodes, with the number of calendar days and percentage gains.
1. 152 days +52% 2. 28 days +11% 3. 77 days +19% 4. 69 days +27% 5. 31 days +30% 6. 35 days +39% 7. 28 days +27%
This information obviously seems to paint a bullish picture: The stock market was in double-digit rally mode during 43% of the total calendar days in question.
But in fact, those rallies were the days when the bear was catching his breath. The market was the Dow Jones Industrials; the overall period was from November 1929 to July 1932. It devastated investors. The Dow lost 80% of its value. Yes, that includes the rallies listed above.
I said that these rallies stand out on a price chart, and indeed they do -- it's just that the declines stand out even more. There's virtually no "sideways" action. Prices moved rapidly in one direction or the other.
You can see the chart for yourself in the first issue (April issue, page 4) of the two-part series Bob Prechter has published in The Elliott Wave Theorist. Part One was in April, "A Deadly Bearish Big Picture." The final sentence of that issue said Part Two "will update the stunning long-term Elliott wave picture."
Bob just published Part Two. It completes the "Big Picture" he has now delivered to subscribers.
The past doesn't "define" the present or the future, but it sure does provide context. No analyst alive today understands this better than Bob Prechter.
Believe me when I say that the charts and analysis in this two-issue series are unique. The word "stunning" only begins to describe what you'll read.
Get Robert Prechter's Latest Analysis -- Click Here to Download His 10-Page Market Letter FREE
For a limited-time, you can download Robert Prechter's April 2010 Elliott Wave Theorist, the first in a two-part series entitled "Deadly Bearish Big Picture," for FREE! Click here to learn more and download your free Theorist.
