This Measure of Stock Market Interest Far Surpasses 1987 & 1929

"More than half of U.S. households have been in the market for a generation"

By Elliott Wave International

A lot of people think that it's perfectly normal to participate in the stock market -- you know, like getting a drink of water or -- breathing.

We here at Elliott Wave International call this the "equity culture" and it's been going strong for a good many years now.

It's difficult for many people to remember that it's not always been thus.

Yet there's been significant stretches of time when the populace at large wouldn't touch stocks with the proverbial ten-foot pole -- the years following the historic 1929 crash being a prime example.

Even at the top of the market in 1929, pollster Al Sindlinger estimated that only 20% of U.S. households participated in the stock market -- based on interviews conducted in 1939. At the market top in 1987, the percentage of households in the market was 36%.

With this perspective, here's a chart and commentary from the February Elliott Wave Financial Forecast which you may find interesting (the Elliott Wave Financial Forecast is a monthly publication which offers analysis and forecasts for major U.S. financial markets):

The percentage of stock holdings by U.S. households hit an all-time high of 58% at the end of 2022. The analysis in the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances lags by 11 months. Given the market's recent rally, the 2023 figure is likely to be even higher. ... Thanks to the Grand Supercycle degree of the bull market, more than half of U.S. households have been in the market for a generation.

And here in early 2024, the optimistic financial sentiment persists. Indeed, here's a Jan. 16 Barron's headline:

Investing In U.S. Stocks Still Makes Sense Despite High Valuations

And, on Jan. 18, the view of the CEO of one of the world's largest money management firms was reflected in this headline (Seeking Alpha):

"Animal spirits" will stir the markets again in 2024

Only time will tell how the remainder of the year will play out, yet keep in mind that optimistic attitudes toward the stock market are unlikely to go on indefinitely. Another historic shift is all but inevitable.

Our analysis reveals what this shift may very well look like -- so you can prepare.

As you might imagine, Elliott Wave International's primary way of analyzing financial markets is employing the Elliott wave method.

The definitive text on the Elliott wave method is Frost & Prechter's Wall Street classic, Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior. Here's a quote from the book:

The Wave Principle often indicates in advance the relative magnitude of the next period of market progress or regress. Living in harmony with those trends can make the difference between success and failure in financial affairs.

All that's required for free access to the online version of the book is a Club EWI membership. Club EWI is the world's largest Elliott wave educational community (about 500,000 members and growing rapidly) and is free to join.

Just follow this link and you can have the book on your computer screen in moments: Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior -- get free and unlimited access.

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline This Measure of Stock Market Interest Far Surpasses 1987 & 1929. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

GameStop (GME): 88% Shellacking Yet No Lesson Learned

"Every major peak gets cinematic treatment"

By Elliott Wave International

Back in early 2021, the meme stock craze was going strong.

As you'll recall that craze was all over the news and revolved around favorite stocks promoted by largely novice traders via social media. This January 27, 2021 New York Times news item sums up the frenzy surrounding one of those stocks:

'Dumb Money' Is on GameStop, and It's Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game

GameStop shares have soared 1,700 percent as millions of small investors, egged on by social media, employ a classic Wall Street tactic to put the squeeze -- on Wall Street.

A few days later, after GameStop shares had fallen hard, the February 2021 Elliott Wave Financial Forecast, a monthly publication which provides analysis of major U.S. financial markets, offered this warning:

Every major peak gets cinematic treatment and the current one is no exception. ... The Wall Street Journal reported, "Netflix, MGM Race to Produce Projects About GameStop Saga."

After that big decline in Gamestop shares in late January and early February 2021, the share price did bounce back, but has since fallen dramatically. Even so, some traders are not fazed, which is testimony to the high degree of overall optimism toward financial markets.

The recently published February Elliott Wave Financial Forecast provides an update with this chart and commentary:

The sustained public tolerance for falling prices is well illustrated by the resilience of retail demand for GameStop shares. GME is down 88% from its intraday high of $120.75 on January 28, 2021. But the faith in GME as a vehicle for wealth continues. ... On January 22, TheStreet's "meme maven" columnist added a host of "Reasons to Buy GameStop." There's just no quenching the demand for GME shares.

Again, this speaks to the high degree of optimism toward the market as a whole and our latest analysis of the main U.S. stock indexes is something you need to see for yourself.

As you might imagine, the main way Elliott Wave International analyzes financial markets is by employing the Elliott wave model.

If you'd like to learn the details of the Wave Principle, read Frost & Prechter's definitive text on the subject, Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior. Here's a quote from this Wall Street classic book:

In the 1930s, Ralph Nelson Elliott discovered that stock market prices trend and reverse in recognizable patterns. The patterns he discerned are repetitive in form but not necessarily in time or amplitude. Elliott isolated five such patterns, or "waves," that recur in market price data. He named, defined and illustrated these patterns and their variations. He then described how they link together to form larger versions of themselves, how they in turn link to form the same patterns of the next larger size, and so on, producing a structured progression. He called this phenomenon The Wave Principle.

Would you like to read the entire book for free?

All that's required for free access to the online version of the book is a Club EWI membership. Club EWI is the world's largest Elliott wave educational community and is free to join. Members enjoy complimentary access to a wealth of Elliott wave insights regarding financial markets, investing and trading.

Follow this link to read the book for free: Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior.

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline GameStop (GME): 88% Shellacking Yet No Lesson Learned. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.

Stocks: It All Boils Down to This

News and events do not alter the market's trend

By Elliott Wave International

The trend of the stock market all boils down to investor psychology -- which tends to unfold in similar patterns during every market cycle.

An important point to realize is that investor psychology is endogenous, which of course means "having an internal cause or origin." Another definition in the dictionary is "not attributable to any external or environmental factor."

This point was driven home when I first became acquainted with the Elliott Wave Principle and read the history of Ralph Nelson Elliott, the accomplished accountant who observed these repetitive stock market patterns while spending time in a hospital with an illness. He noticed, and I'm paraphrasing, that the trend of the stock market was uninterrupted despite World War II! In other words, the endogenous workings of investor psychology persisted even though an external event as significant as a world war had developed.

Besides wars, this applies to other news and events as well -- such as terrorist attacks, Federal Reserve announcements, so-called oil "shocks," "surprising" economic reports, natural disasters, developments in the world of politics and even a presidential assassination. The market may exhibit a relatively brief emotional reaction to dramatic news, but afterwards, the trend picks up where it left off.

In his landmark book, The Socionomic Theory of Finance, Robert Prechter describes a case in point with these charts and commentary:

[The chart] shows the DJIA around the time when President John F. Kennedy was shot. First of all, can you tell by looking at the graph exactly when that event occurred? Maybe before that big drop on the left? Maybe at some other peak, causing a selloff?

The first arrow [on this next chart] shows the timing of the assassination. The market initially fell, but by the close of the next trading day, it was above where it was at the moment of the event, as you can see by the position of the second arrow.

In the latter half of 1962 and 1963, the trend of the stock market -- driven by investor psychology -- was up -- and continued upward despite historically dramatic news.

Know that Elliott waves are a direct reflection of this investor psychology and can help you anticipate what's next for financial markets around the globe.

If you'd like to delve into the details of Elliott wave analysis, read the definitive text on the subject: Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior by Frost & Prechter.

Here's a quote from the book:

All waves may be categorized by relative size, or degree. The degree of a wave is determined by its size and position relative to component, adjacent and encompassing waves. [R.N.] Elliott named nine degrees of waves, from the smallest discernible on an hourly chart to the largest wave he could assume existed from the data then available. He chose the following terms for these degrees, from largest to smallest: Grand Supercycle, Supercycle, Cycle, Primary, Intermediate, Minor, Minute, Minuette, Subminuette. Cycle waves subdivide into Primary waves that subdivide into Intermediate waves that in turn subdivide into Minor waves, and so on. The specific terminology is not critical to the identification of degrees, although out of habit, today's practitioners have become comfortable with Elliott's nomenclature.

If you'd like to learn more, know that the entire online version of this Wall Street classic is available to you free once you join Club EWI -- the world's largest Elliott wave educational community.

A Club EWI membership is free, and members enjoy complimentary access to a wealth of Elliott wave resources on investing and trading without any obligations.

You can have the book on your screen in moments as you follow this link: Elliott Wave Principle: Key to Market Behavior -- get instant and free access.

This article was syndicated by Elliott Wave International and was originally published under the headline Stocks: It All Boils Down to This. EWI is the world's largest market forecasting firm. Its staff of full-time analysts led by Chartered Market Technician Robert Prechter provides 24-hour-a-day market analysis to institutional and private investors around the world.