3:30 p.m. New York time
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures reached a session high of 7782 and then began to fall, so far reaching into the 7740s. Wednesday’s movements remained entirely within Monday’s high/low range, although prices rose slightly above Tuesday’s high.
Elliott Wave Theory. This morning’s analysis is unchanged. Under the primary scenario, rising wave D{-5} remains underway. However, a second scenario — that D{-5} ended at the September 22 high of 7848.50 and falling wave E{-5} began there — may prove to be the better interpretation. At this point, the structure remains ambiguous.
Decision Points. A rise above 7848.50 would confirm that D{-5} remains underway. Continued weakness, especially a sustained break below recent lows, would increase the likelihood that D{-5} has ended and E{-5} is underway. Until price resolves that choice, the analysis remains in an Elliott Wave transition zone.
9:35 a.m. New York time
What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures drifted down during much of the overnight trading, reaching a low of 7719.50, and then drifted higher, suddenly shooting upward with the release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index for August an hour before the opening bell.
The overnight price movement, while dramatic on a close-up chart, remained within the prior day’s high/low range.
What does it mean? Given the relatively small distance covered by the market’s response to the PCE report, Elliott Wave Theory analysis remains unchanged, as do the ambiguities.
Rising wave D{-5} continues under the primary scenario, and a rising price increases the odds in favor of that scenario. However, it is also possible that D{-5} ended on September 22 at 7848.50, and that falling wave E{-5} began at that moment. Neither scenario has been confirmed.
Both scenarios exist within wave 4{-4}, a downward correction that began on October 29, 2025 and has taken the form of an Expanding Triangle. Wave D{-5} is or was the next-to-the-last subwave of wave 4{-4}, and wave E{-5} is or will be the final subwave.
Decision Points. A rise above 7848.50 would eliminate the September 22 peak as the end of D{-5} and confirm that the wave remains underway. Continued weakness, especially a sustained move below recent lows, would increase the likelihood that D{-5} has ended and E{-5} is underway. Until price establishes one of those paths, the Elliott Wave structure remains in a transition zone.

[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)
- D{-5} Micro, 3/30/2026, 7353.25 (up)
- C{-6} Submicro, 7/29/2026, 7324 (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 Methods for a rundown on where to go for information on Elliott Wave analysis.
By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, September 30, 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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