3:30 p.m. New York time

Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures barely budged during the session, remaining between the 5760s and 5770s. The 4th-wave upward correction that began on September 6 continues.

9:35 a.m. New York time

What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures to to the 5780s and then dropped to the 5740s after trading resumed overnight.

What does it mean? The price remained below the September 19 high, 5797.50. After applying Elliott Wave Theory, I’ve concluded that the decline from that high is very low degree 4th-wave downward correction.

That small correction is part of a series of rising and falling waves that are part of the larger 4th-wave upward correction that began on September 6. When that larger 4th-wave correction is complete, an uptrending 5th wave will begin. When complete, it will also be the end of the C wave of a still larger downward correction that began on August 28. A rising 5th wave will follow.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures at 3:30 p.m., hour.\ly bars, with volume]

What are the alternatives? There are three.

Alternative #1:

The 4th-wave upward correction that began on September 6 ended on September 19. A 5th-wave downtrend has begun.

Alternative #2:

This alternative is a future possibility, after wave C is complete. Typically, a 4th-wave correction will have three subwaves — A, B and C — and then will be complete. Occasionally a subwave will take a compound form, containing two or three corrective patterns, each composed of three subwaves and connected to the prior pattern by a wave called an X wave. This would delay the start of the following 5th wave uptrend.

Alternative #3:

This alternative has to do with how best to interpret the chart’s position within wave C. It plays off of the fact that the 2nd subwave within C under the Principal Analysis is quite small. It is possible that the decline we’ve seen since September 2 is a degree smaller within the fractal structure of the chart than the principal analysis would have. Under this scenario, wave 1 within wave C is underway. This would delay the end of the 4th-wave downward correction and the start of the ensuing 5th wave uptrend.

What does Elliott wave theory say? Here are the waves that underly the analyses.

Principal Analysis:

• Rising wave 5{0} is underway. It is a wave of Intermediate degree that began in December 2018.
• It is in its final subwave, wave 5{-1}.
• Within wave 5{-1}, rising waves 5{-2}, 5{-3} and 5{-4} are underway, as is wave 5{-5}.
• Wave 5{-5} is in its initial subwave, wave 1{-6}, which in turn is in its middle subwave, wave 3{-7}.
• Wave 3{-7} is in its next-to-the-last subwave, wave 4{-8}, a downward correction.
• Wave 4{-8} is in its final subwave, wave C{-9}, which is within wave 5{-10}.
• Wave 5{-10} is in its final subwave, rising wave 5{-11}.
• Within rising wve 5{-11}, the subwaves are rising wave C{-12}, rising wave 5{-13} and falling wave 4{-14}

Alternative Analysis #1, upward correction ended

• Wave 4{-8} has ended and falling wave 5{-8} has begun.

Alternative Analysis #2, compound correction scenario:

• Wave 4{-8} is in its final subwave, wave C{-9}, which is in its middle subwave, wave 3{-10}.
• Wave 5{-10}, still in the future, will be the end of wave C{-9} but not of the wave 4{-8} downward correction, which under this scenario will take a compound form containing two or three corrective patterns.
• The present wave C{-9} will be followed by a rising connector wave X{-9} and then a declining wave A{-9}, the first wave of the second corrective pattern.

Alternative Analysis #3, wave 1 scenario:

• Wave 4{-8} is in its final subwave, wave C{-9}, which is in its initial subwave wave 1{-10}, which in turn is in its final subwave, wave 3{-11}. And wave 3{-11} is in its final subwave, wave 5{-12}.

Reading the chart. Price movements — waves – – in Elliott wave 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 page Analytical Methods for a rundown on where to go for information on Elliott wave analysis.

By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, September 23, 2024

Disclaimer

Tim Bovee, Private Trader tracks the analysis and trades of a private trader for his own accounts. Nothing in this blog constitutes a recommendation to buy or sell stocks, options or any other financial instrument. The only purpose of this blog is to provide education and entertainment.

No trader is ever 100 percent successful in his or her trades. Trading in the stock and option markets is risky and uncertain. Each trader must make trading decisions for his or her own account, and take responsibility for the consequences.

License

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Based on a work at www.timbovee.com.