3:30 p,m. New York timw.
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures began to fall late overnight and continued the decline into the session, reaching a session low of 7676.75 in a series of stair-step drops.
Elliott Wave Theory. The wave A{-6} decline, the first subwave within falling wave E{-5}, has so far covered little ground. It remains well above the upper boundary of the expanding triangle that is wave 4{-4}.
Decision Points. A move below the overnight low of 7661.25 would strengthen the case that wave A{-6} remains underway. Continued declines would add weight to the larger count that falling wave E{-5} is developing. A sustained rise that breaks the sequence of lower highs and lower lows would raise the possibility that wave A{-6} has ended and a countertrend wave B{-6} has begun, but the small rise late in today’s session does not yet provide that evidence.
9:35 a.m. New York time
What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures rose overnight, from an early low of 7661.25 to a high slightly above 7700, and then began to fall.
What does it mean? Elliott Wave Theory analysis continues to conclude that wave E{-5} is underway, the falling final subwave of wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that began on October 29, 2025.
The Chart. Today’s chart focuses on wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that has been underway since October 29, 2025 and that has taken the form of an expanding triangle. Now underway: Falling wave E{-5} and its initial subwave, wave A{-6}.
The chart below shows wave 4{-4} and its form, an expanding triangle, one of the less common structures the markets can create. In an expanding triangle, each rising wave moves higher than the previous rising wave, and each falling wave lower than the previous falling wave. Unlike most patterns in Elliott Wave Theory, which have a clear directionality composed of rising and falling subwaves, this triangle usually moves net sideways.
Except when it doesn’t. The blue lines on the chart show the boundaries of the expanding triangle, and sometimes a subwave within the triangle moves beyond a boundary. That’s what happened to the most recent rising subwave, D{-5}. Or, sometimes, a subwave fails to reach the boundary.
Wave E{-5}, if it ends at the lower boundary, will see the price reach below 6100, assuming it takes several months to get there. The two boundary lines move further away from each other every moment of trading. However, wave E{-5} could travel further, or it could end at a higher price.
There’s no way to predict it, but we’ll know it when we see it.
Decision Points. A decline below the overnight low of 7661.25 would strengthen the case that falling wave A{-6} is continuing. A move below 7324, the July 29 low, would provide much stronger confirmation that wave E{-5} is developing. A rise above the August 13 peak of 7838.50 would invalidate the present count that wave E{-5} began there and would mean that rising wave D{-5} remains underway.

[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} Subminuette 10/29/2025, 6953.75 (down)
- E{-5} Micro, 8/13/2026, 7838.50 (down)
- A{-6} Submicro, 8/13/2026, 7838.50 (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, August 21, 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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