3:30 p.m. New York time

Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures rose into the 5920s during the session and then pulled back slightly. Elliott Wave Theory: The middle subwave with the larger middle subwave within the still larger 5th-wave uptrend that began October 2 all continue.

9:35 a.m. New York time

What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures rose overnight into the 5920s, breezing past the prior peak, attained on October 14.

What does it mean? The resumption of the rise resolved the Elliott Wave Theory ambiguities that had plagued the chart for the last few days.

Under the new principal analysis, the uptrending 5th wave that began on October 2 continues with it’s count unchanged.

Internally, however, things have changed. The subwave one degree lower than the October 2 wave is now in its 3rd subwave, as is the 3rd wave one degree further down.

Wave labels on the chart are shown as a wave number followed by a subscript in curly brackets denoting the number of degrees distance the wave stands from the present Intermediate degree, wave 5{0}, which began in December 2018.

On the chart, the uptrending 5th wave of October 2 is wave 5{-9}, which is in its middle subwave, wave 3{-10}, which in turn is within its middle wave, wave 3{-11}. Basically, wave 3{-10}, which had been labelled as ending on October 9, is now considered to be underway.

The difficulty, as always, is the occasional difficulty of determining placement of any given wave within the fractal structure of the chart.

See yesterday’s Trader’s Notebook for the prior principal analysis chart.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures at 3:30 p.m., 110-minute bars, with volume]

What are the alternatives? None at present. they will no doubt develop with the passage of time.

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 final; subwave, uptrending wave 5{-8}.
• Wave 5{-8} is in its final subwave, wave 5{-9}, which is in its middle subwave, rising wave 3{-10}.
• Wave 3{-10} is in its middle subwave, wave 3{-11}.

Long-term Waves.

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, 12/26/2018, 2346.58 (up)
• S&P 500 Futures
• 5{-1} Minor, 10/27/2023, 4127.25 (up)
• 3{-2} Minute, 10/27/23, 4127.75 (up)
• 3{-3} Minuette, 10/27/23, 4127.75 (up)
• 5{-4} Subminuette, 4/18/2024, 4963.50 (up)
• 5{-5} Micro, 8/5/2024, 5120 (up)
• 1{-6} Submicro, 8/5/2024, 5120 (up)
• 3{-7} Minuscule, 8/7/2024, 5182 (up)
• 5{-8} (unnamed), 9/6/2024, 5394 (up)

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, October 17, 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

All content on Tim Bovee, Private Trader by Timothy K. Bovee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Based on a work at www.timbovee.com.