3:30 p.m. New York time
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futurescontinued falling during the session, reaching a low of 7711.25, and then began tracing a sideways fluctuation between the 7710s and the 7730s.
Elliott Wave Theory’s analysis remains unchanged from this morning. Falling wave C{-6} within falling wave E{-5} began on Thursday.
There is still some ambiguity as to the size of the subwaves. Wave E{-5} began its decline on August 13. At that point, wave A{-6} also began.
Under the present analysis, wave A{-6} ended on September 2, rising wave B{-6} ended on September 3, and falling wave C{-6}, the final subwave, is underway while wave E{-5} remains above the upper boundary of their parent, wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that has taken the form of an expanding triangle. The target for E{-5} — by target I mean the behavior most often seen with subwaves within expanding triangles — is the lower boundary of the triangle, still some distance away.
An alternative analysis would consider wave A{-6} to still be underway. Under that hypothesis, the subwaves now labeled at the {-7} degree would actually be lower-degree waves within wave A{-7}. They might be at the {-8} degree, or perhaps even the {-9} degree within {-8} within A{-7} within A{-6}. The rise now labeled B{-6} would likewise belong to a lower degree.
The problem is that there is no convincing way to label wave degrees until the waves have had enough time to draw their patterns. Wave E{-5}’s predecessor, rising wave D{-5}, took more than four months to reach completion. Wave E{-5} has been underway for less than a month.
For now, I’ll keep the chart as it is. Over the weekend I’ll compare the present decline with other subwaves of the expanding triangle in an effort to develop a more nuanced view of which degree labels are most appropriate.
Decision Points. The uncertainty concerns the degree of the present waves rather than the larger conclusion that wave E{-5} is declining. No new positions will be opened today. Over the weekend I shall reassess the wave degrees before making decisions based on the present labeling.
9:35 a.m. New York time
What’s happening now? The S&P 500 futures fell sharply after a much stronger-than-expected Employment Situation report showed robust job growth, steady unemployment and upward revisions to prior months. The good economic news was bad news for stocks because it reduced the case for easier Federal Reserve policy and raised the prospect of interest rates remaining higher for longer. As the opening bell sounded the stock began to rise.
What does it mean? Elliott Wave Theory, when applied, concludes that rising wave B{-6} appears to have ended at Thursday’s peak, and declining wave C{-6} appears to be underway. Wave C{-6} is the third and final wave within declining wave E{-5}, which is the final wave within wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that began on October 29, 2025.
Decision Points. The apparent transition from wave B{-6} to wave C{-6} is still young and requires further confirmation. With the Employment Situation report producing a sharp market reaction and Friday already designated as a no-new-entry day, I shall open no new positions. Existing holdings will be managed as needed.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures 3:30 p.m., 1-hour 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} Subminuette 10/29/2025, 6953.75 (down)
- E{-5} Micro, 8/13/2026, 7838.50 (down)
- C{-6} Submicro, 9/3/2026, 7758.75 (down)
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 Methods for a rundown on where to go for information on Elliott Wave analysis.
By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, September 4, 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.
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Based on work atwww.timbovee.com











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