As for the first question of discerning market trends, Sullivan looks at the internals like the ratio of new highs to new lows, advance-decline ratios, and the ability of the market to hold support and break through resistance.

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They can be used to place short-term bets on market trends, while their rock-bottom expense ratios make them ideal candidates for buy-and-hold portfolios.

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Moreover, the German and French banks that hold Greek government debt would have their debt-to-equity ratios severely impaired and they could quite arguably become insolvent themselves.

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In regards to leverage, Basel III introduced a minimum 3% leverage ratio and two required liquidity ratios: (1) the Liquidity Coverage Ratio, which requires a bank to hold high-quality liquid assets to cover its total net cash outflows over 30 days, and (2) the Net Stable Funding Ratio, which requires the available amount of stable funding to exceed the required amount of stable funding over a one-year period of extended stress.

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