Holiday. The bond markets will be closed in the United States today to market the Veterans Day holiday. Stock and options markets will trade as usual.
3:30 p.m. New York time
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures fell during the session, into the 6010s.
Elliott Wave Theory: The rising 5th wave that began on November 4 continues, as do the ambiguities concerning wave 5 subwaves.
9:35 a.m. New York time
What’s happening now? The S&P 500 E-mini futures rose into the 6050s after trading resumed overnight and then pulled back into the 6040s.
What does it mean? The rising 5th wave that began on November 4 continues, according to Elliott Wave Theory. Within that rise, however, the subwaves are less than clear.
On the chart I’ve put up two sets of labels for subwaves of the 5th-wave rise, one colored black and the other red. The black version looks a bit more likely than the red to me, but honestly, I can’t choose between them.
So at this point I’m considering each to be a principal analysis.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures at 3:30 p.m., 45-minute bars, with volume]
What are the alternatives? None beyond the subwaves of wave 5, discussed above.
What does Elliott wave theory say? Here are the waves that underly the analyses.
Principal Analyses #1 and #2:
- 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 final subwave, uptrending wave 5{-10}.
- Within wave 10, the subwaves are either in 3{-11} or 5{-11}. The differing wave counts are colored black and red, respectively.
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)
- 5{-9} (unnamed), 10/2/2024, 5724 (up)
- 5{-10} (unnamed), 11/4/2024, 5824.25 (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, November 11, 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.
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.










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