3:30 p.m. New York time
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures continued to fall during the session, reaching into the 7560s but remaining slightly above Tuesday’s low of 7571.75. The price movements remain small relative to the larger chart structure.
Elliott Wave Theory. Rising wave D{-5}, now in its final subwave, C{-6}, continues. Within C{-6}, rising wave C{-7} is in its final subwave, C{-8}. Today’s decline is insufficient to show that any of those rising waves has ended.
The price remains below the June 15 peak of 7648.75, which marked the end of rising wave A{-7}, the first subwave within wave C{-6}.
Decision Points. A rise above 7648.75 would carry wave C{-8} above the June 15 peak and strengthen the case that the final advance within wave D{-5} remains underway.
A decline below Tuesday’s low of 7571.75 would extend the short-term downtrend but would not, by itself, show that wave C{-8} has ended. A sustained break below the B{-8} low at 7468.50 would require reconsideration of the lower-degree labeling and raise the possibility that wave C{-6}—and therefore wave D{-5}—has completed.
9:35 a.m. New York time
What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures rose overnight to 7632, their highest level so far this week, and then reversed, falling to 7580.50 before recovering into the 7590s. The overnight low remains above Wednesday’s low.
What does it mean? Elliott Wave Theory. Rising wave D{-5} continues and is in its final subwave, C{-6}. That wave, in turn, is in its final subwave, C{-7}, which is also in its final subwave, C{-8}.
Wave D{-5} is working through its closing stages. It is the next-to-the-last subwave of wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that began on October 29, 2025.
When wave D{-5} is complete, declining wave E{-5} will begin. It will be the final subwave of wave 4{-4} and will bring the correction into its closing stages.
Wave E{-5} will likely carry the price below the March 30 low of 6353.25, perhaps reaching the vicinity of 6200 or lower. When wave E{-5} and wave 4{-4} have ended, rising wave 5{-4} will begin and will likely carry the price to new highs.
Decision Points. A rise above 7648.75 would verify that wave D{-5} continued beyond the June 15 peak and strengthen the current C{-8} labeling.
A sustained decline below Wednesday’s low in the 7570s would weaken the immediate upward labeling and increase the plausibility that wave E{-5} is already underway. A break below the rising boundary of wave 4{-4}, now in the low 7200s, would provide much stronger operational confirmation.
The Chart. Today’s chart focuses on wave D{-5}, a rising wave that began on March 30 within a downward correction, wave 4{-4}, that began on October 29, 2025. The blue line traces the upper boundary of the wave 4{-4} expanding triangle.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures 3:30 p.m., 1-day bars with volume]
Waves Now Underway
These are the waves currently in progress under my principal analysis. Each line on the list shows the wave number, with the subscript in curly brackets, the traditional degree name, the starting date, the starting price of the S&P 500 E-mini futures, and the direction of the wave.
- S&P 500 Index:
- 5{+3} Supercycle, 7/8/1932, 4.40 (up)
- 5{+2} Cycle, 12/9/1974, 60.96 (up)
- 5{+1} Primary, 3/6/2009, 666.79 (up)
- 5{0} Intermediate, 2/11/2016, 1810.10 (up)
- 3{-1} Minor, 3/23/2020, 2191.36 (up)
- 1{-2} Minute, 7/31/2025, 6468.50 (down)
- S&P 500 E-mini futures
- 5{-3} Minuette 8/1/2025, 6239.50 (up}
- 4{-4} Subminutte 10/29/2025, 6953.75 (down}
- D{-5} Micro, 3/30/2026, 6353.25 (up}
- C{-6} Submicro, 6/11/2026, 7232.25 (up)
Reading the chart. Price movements — waves – – in Elliott Wave Theory analysis are labeled with numbers within trending waves and letters with corrective waves. The subscripts — numbers in curly brackets — designate the wave’s degree, which, in Elliott Wave analysis, means the relative position of a wave within the larger and smaller structures that make up the chart.R.N. Elliott, who in the 1930s developed the form of analysis that bears his name, viewed the chart as a complex structure of smaller waves nested within larger waves, which in turn are nested within still larger waves. In mathematics it’s called a fractal structure, where at every scale the pattern is similar to the others.
Learning and other resources. Elliott Wave analysis provides context, not prophecy. As the 20th century semanticist Alfred Korzybski put it in his book Science and Sanity(1933), “The map is not the territory… The only usefulness of a map depends on similarity of structure between the empirical world and the map.” And I would add, in the ever-changing markets, we can judge that similarity of structure only after the fact.
See the menu pageAnalytical Methodsfor a rundown on where to go for information on Elliott Wave analysis.
By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, July 16, 2026
Disclaimer
Tim Bovee, Private Trader tracks the analysis and trades of a private trader managing his own accounts. The content reflects my interpretation of market structure, including Elliott Wave Theory and related tools.
Nothing in this blog constitutes a recommendation to buy or sell stocks, options, or any other financial instrument, or to pursue any particular strategy. The purpose of this blog is education and entertainment.
No trader is ever 100 percent successful. Trading in stock and options markets involves risk and uncertainty. Each trader must make decisions for his or her own account and accept full responsibility for the outcomes.
Charts and tools are used to support my personal analysis. Any data displayed is illustrative of that analytical process and is not presented as a source of market data for redistribution.
All content on Tim Bovee, Private Trader byTimothy K. Boveeis licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
License
Based on work atwww.timbovee.com









You must be logged in to post a comment.