What Not to Post - Answers to Most Commonly Asked Questions

General Posting Guidelines

 * The purpose of our Trading Room is to foster cooperative analysis for optimizing trading and better understanding of the markets. Member Trading Room posts are not for commercial or promotional purposes. All room messages, including private messages, are archived, and may be reviewed to ensure adherence to our guidelines. Public and private messages that are promotional or in any way attacking, insulting, or incendiary are NOT permitted.  We request courtesy, and reserve the right to, for any reason and without notice, 1) edit or remove member content, 2) discontinue a member's posting and private messaging privileges, and/or 3) suspend membership.   To ignore another member's posts, please select "Ignore" beside their name in the Users dropdown field in the Trading Room. If you have any concerns about comments made in the room, or any feedback, please contact us.


 * Please read Avi's post about "Respect" in Favorite Posts on Getting Started.

What is the Emini S&P 500 and why is this Avi's preferred index for analyzing the S&P 500? How does it compare price-wise to the cash S&P 500?

 * The Emini S&P 500 (ES) futures provide virtually round-the-clock trading, providing the most complete wave count of the S&P 500 without gaps. Since I want to have as much information as possible regarding all twists and turns within a wave count, the futures provide the only venue that allows me to see all the movements of the market so that I can appropriately count all the wave subdivision within the market. If I would simply use the cash index or the SPY, the gaps would leave me with gaps in my wave count which would lead me to questionable wave counts.


 * The ES can be tracked at CME.com. Any brokerage account you have should provide you with quotes and charts as well -- please simply contact your broker.  The ES does approximate the SPX and SPY, but it's not exactly the same.  There is no conversion factor I know of -- though the price gets closer as you get nearer to the strike date.

How do I find Avi's buy & sell points and track his performance?

 * Avi doesn't give actual buy/sell recommendations, but his analysis provides for you the direction that the S&P 500, oil, gold/silver, USD and VXX are headed, along with directional calls that subscribers use to trade these markets long and short. All his alerts -- his intraday Wave Alerts, nightly Market Update, and weekend reports on the Emini S&P 500, gold & silver, oil and the USD -- can be found in the Avi's Alerts tab.  Here are some examples of how his calls have translated into gains for subscribers:.

What is Avi’s perspective on markets – and/or where are we in the market right now?

 * Any alert by Avi that includes charts is archived in the Avi’s Alerts tab. This includes his intraday Wave Alerts, nightly Market Updates, and Weekend reports.  Please be sure to read these and you will be caught up on Avi's current market perspective.  A quick link to Avi’s latest alert is also provided just above the top post in the Trading Room. Trading levels are outlined on the charts.


 * For the larger picture, see Avi's "Big Picture" analysis (archived in the Avi's Alerts tab), where you can see Avi’s intermediate to longer-term perspective on the markets. For a better understanding of Avi’s charts, we recommend trying his Live Video premium service.

I don’t understand or am learning Elliott Wave. What do you suggest?

 * Avi recommends the book, Elliott Wave Principle, by Frost & Prechter, available in our Member Library, and his Intro to Elliott Wave Webinar from October 5, 2011, as well as Elliott Wave Overview from September 15, 2012, and Elliot Wave Wading Pool from Feb 6, 2013 in our Webinar section.

What is Fibonacci Pinball?

 * In Elliott Wave analysis, it's critical to distinguish whether we are in a 3 or 5 wave pattern. Here, Fibonacci calculations of extensions and retracements, based upon Phi (The Golden Ratio), are essential.  A standard Wave 1 will extend to the .382 or .618 extension of the entire move. It then pulls back in a Wave 2, generally to the .500 or .618 retracement level of the Wave 1. It is then followed by a 3rd wave that subdivides, and this is where an Elliottician makes the distinction between an impulsive 5-wave move or a 3-wave corrective move.  This is something Avi lovingly calls “Fibonacci Pinball.” Ultimately, the way that we know that a movement within the market is going to be a 5-wave move as opposed to a 3-wave move happens during the potential Wave 3.  For a more detailed explanation of Elliott Wave Theory, Phi, and "Fibonacci Pinball" please see our section Elliott Wave Theory and Avi's detailed article The Basics of Fibonacci Pinball.

Does Avi post Elliott Wave analysis on specific Stocks?

 * Currently Avi focuses the majority of his analysis on the emini S&P 500 contract and the S&P 500 cash index. Avi will also occasionally provide Elliott Wave analysis for gold (GLD), silver (SLV), oil (USO) and dollar (USD) and lastly if there is a specific stock symbol that Avi finds an "ideal set-up" he will also share this with the community.  For individual stock analysis, we recommend our Stock Waves service, led by our contributing analyst "Cowabunga," and where members as well can also share their own analysis of stocks.

Can we share our own Stock Trades?

 * Yes, there is a section called Member Portfolio where you can share your trades. We discourage posting $ amounts and trade lot sizes as it sets a competitive, promotional tone, and we seek to be a community working together to profit in the market through cooperative analysis.

What recommendations or guidance do you have for Position Sizing?

 * Avi tries to keep positions to under 5% of total capital. 2-3% is usually ideal.   If you use proper risk management with managing position sizes and using stops, you should not be able to blow up your account, even if you are wrong 50% of the time!!   If you are going to designate 5% of your total capital for a trade, and choose to use options instead of the stock, you should probably use no more than 10% of the total 5% you would have bought the stock with. It is in order to make the assumption you lose 100% of that option cost, so your total loss is only 10% of the 5% you would have designated for that trade.  Please also see the Webinar "Members Perspectives in Trading Elliott Wave Cycles" from April 18, 2012 for more input on position sizing.

What recommendations or guidance do you have for Trading Options?

 * Options are a very powerful vehicle which can be used to enter a position in a stock, ETF or Index utilizing less capital than would be required if they purchased that asset outright or can also be an effective vehicle as a hedge against a current position.  Again, however,  if you are going to designate 5% of your total capital for a trade, and choose to use options instead of the stock, you should probably use no more than 10% of the total 5% you would have bought the stock with. So if lose 100% of that option cost, your total loss is only 10% of the 5% you would have designated for that trade.

Is following along in Avi's Trading Room the only way to access Avi's Intraday Analysis?

 * Along with utilizing Avi's posted ideas in the Trading Room, you can sign-up for Avi's Live Video Webinars. This is a great opportunity to see how Avi calculates his targets for extensions and retracements, and receive additional comments from Avi while also being able to see his trading set-up and charts in real time -- and lastly Avi also answers your questions in real time.  The Live Video subscription is an additional $99.95 over and above your current ElliottWaveTrader subscription fee.  Please email us at or call us at 310.802.1200 (offices of our publisher, AdviceTrade, Inc.) with any questions.

How can I set an Avatar?

 * Click the "Account" link in the website's Navigation Bar which will take you to the main Account page. From there select the "Profile" option, which will then display the ability to change your Avatar. You will see where you can click to choose one of the predefined Avatars or from the pull down select the "upload your own" and click the Choose File button. You are limited to a maximum size of 700k. JPG, GIF, PNG.

Can I ask questions or post information that are based in Fundamental Analysis?

 * Since this is a technical analysis site, we do not engage in any fundamental analysis, and we would appreciate it if you would not post any fundamentally based analysis on the Trading Room discussion board.

Can I post another analyst’s opinion in the chat room and content from other sites?

 * Since this often will only confuse others in the room, if you have something to share with Avi of this nature, feel free to email it to him at avi@elliottwavetrader.net. Please refrain from posting verbatim any member-only content from other services. You're welcome to paraphrase or quote short passages as long as you cite the reference.