3:30 p.m. New York time
Half an hour before the closing bell. The S&P 500 futures pierced the 100% retracement level, at 6008, twice during the session. See the Fibonacci ladder in red. Elliott Wave Theory: Rising wave B within the 4th-wave downward correction has met and exceeded a rule of EWT: A B wave in a Flat type correction must retrace at least 90% of the preceding wave A.
Questions that lie ahead: How much higher will wave B rise? How much lower will the next subwave, wave C, go?
9:35 a.m. New York time.
What’s happening now. The S&P 500 E-mini futures rose in a minute from the 5970s into the 5990s when the federal government’s Employment Situation Report was released, an hour before the opening bell. The price rose further, to 6007, seconds before the opening bell sounded.
What does it mean? Having applied Elliott Wave Theory analysis, I’ve concluded that the rise that began overnight is the 2nd subwave — rising wave B — of the downward correction — wave 4 — that began on June 5.
The preceding subwave, declining wave A, has three subwaves, meaning that the 4th wave correction is taking the form of a Flat. Under the rules of Elliott Wave Theory, a Flat form must retrace at least 90% of the prior A wave and can move beyond the A-wave’s starting point, which is 6016.50 in this case.
I placed a Fibonacci ladder on the chart in red, as an aid to tracing the B-wave’s retracement of the A-wave. So far wave B has retraced 78.6% of wave A, a Fibonacci number. A 90% retracement will carry the price up to 6007.75. The price reached 6007 seconds before the opening bell sounded.
Wave B will be followed by declining wave C, with five subwaves. When wave C is complete, it will also be the end of its parent wave 4 and the beginning of an uptrending 5th wave.

[S&P 500 E-mini futures at 3:30 p.m., 35-minute bars, with volume]
Elliott Wave Theory wave labels. Each wave listed on the charts has two components: A wave number, and a subscript in curly brackets that place the wave’s position in the fractal strucutre in relationship to Intermediate degree. The present Intermediate degree, wave 5{0}, began its rise on February 11, 2016 from 1810.10 and is still underway.
The waves referred to on the chart are as follows.
Principal analysis: Upward correction wave 5{-2} is underway and within it is working through a nested series of initial subwaves, wave 1{-3} down to wave 1{-5}. One degree lower, rising wave 3{-6} is underway and is in its final subwave, wave 5{-7},
Within wave 5{-7}, uptrending wave 5{-8} is in its final stage, uptrending wave 5{-9}.
Within wave 5{-9}, its middle subwave, wave 3{-10}, is underway. Internally, wave 3{-10} is in its 4th subwave, wave 4{-11}, a downward correction that began from 6016.50.
Wave 4{-11} is in its 2nd subwave, rising wave B{-12}.
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)
- 5{-2} Minute, 4/7/2025, 4832 (up)
- S&P 500 Futures
- 1{-3} Minuette, 4/7/2025, 4832 (up)
- 1{-4} Subminuette, 4/7/2025, 4832 (up)
- 1{-5} Micro, 4/7/2025, 4832 (up)
- 3{-6} Submicro, 4/21/2025, 4832 (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 page Analytical Methods for a rundown on where to go for information on Elliott Wave analysis.
By Tim Bovee, Portland, Oregon, June 6, 2025
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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