Saturday, August 8, 2026

Threatening - But Not Yet Imminent

When looking over the Dow daily chart, there are several examples seen in the prior high on Jul 6th where one can potentially count a diagonal. However, none of those diagonals came to pass - they were not fully retraced in less 'time' than the diagonal took to form - and, in fact, there has been a higher high since. This usually happens when the potential diagonal is part of a sickening "b" wave upward. Regardless, we now know they were not diagonals. So what does this mean? Well, I think it helps to back off and look at the Dow futures daily chart, as below.

Dow Futures (YM) - Daily Close - Parallel

As the chart shows, the wave up from the April 2025 low parallels extremely well. This is supposed to mean the move is corrective, unless the price gets substantially over the upper parallel. As of this time price has not even reached the parallel. And, as the saying goes from the Elliott Wave Principle by Frost & Prechter, "A line drawn from the start of A to the end of B, with a parallel copy placed on the end of the A wave often shows the end of the C wave."

Now clearly that does not work every time. That is, in part, what the Kennedy Channeling Technique (KCT) is about: when a wave bursts through that upper parallel, that is when a third wave can often be identified.

But, here again, this is only a tendency of the KCT, too, because sometimes a C wave is 1.27 x A, or even 1.618 x A, depending on the circumstances, and then prices peek up out of the channel and then revert.

Nothing works all the time, and again, this is almost always a situation with odds. Last night I was playing tile rummy, and the first thing you do is draw tiles numbered with integers from a pool of 100 tiles. You draw twelve tiles. So, that means roughly from the pool of integers, one should expect six even and six odd tiles from a well-mixed set of tiles - which they were. What did I draw? Fully 11 odd tiles and only 1 even tile! Can you imagine the odds of that? Yet, the low odds event did occur - sure as I'm writing this.

So, even though the Dow looks like it might want to lead down first after some further potential upside - just like it did in 2000 - that does not mean it's a 'lock'. As of yet, the only alternation in the chart above can be stated as "long A, short C". One might have hoped for "Impulse A, and Diagonal C", but that is not on the board yet. It could be. So, I retain that option if things drag on & on.

In the meanwhile, just like a view of the weather radar, one has to say the potential severe storm that is several states away is "threatening, but not yet imminent". It could get rough, soon. So far, it hasn't.

Have an excellent rest of the weekend.

TraderJoe

11 comments:

  1. Read your comment on NYAD A/D line. Saw a recent interview with Prechter where he pointed out that many indicators are no longer as reliable as they once were, and he cited TRN as on such example which is now meaningless so far as being predictive of future price action and momentum. Nothing about what Mr. Market will or will not do is ever absolutely certain, clearly. I for one, since I learned about HOs, ALWAYS take their occurrence very seriously. As you sometimes quip: "Nothing to the downside will surprise me."

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  2. SPX500 (CFD) 1-hr: it 'looks' something like this at the moment. Lots of triangles and Flat waves involved.

    https://www.tradingview.com/x/MS2QIeDd/

    TJ

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  3. SPX500 (CFD) 30-min: from the intraday wave-counting-screen. Break of prior low after a 'near-high', with an over-sold intraday slow stochastic, against a lower intraday Bollinger Band. Can be a 'possible' Flat wave or part of a larger triangle.

    https://www.tradingview.com/x/gBUcLgOq/

    TJ

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    Replies
    1. ..now down to S2 daily pivot.

      https://www.tradingview.com/x/S1iTFZqE/

      TJ

      Delete
  4. SPX500 (CFD) 2-hr: larger triangle now in play with 78% retrace (or more).

    https://www.tradingview.com/x/9B123zCN/

    Subject to usual triangle invalidations.
    TJ

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    Replies
    1. Looks like the market is starting to make the e wave of a triangle. Not sure how long it will go, but the other legs burned some time, so this might, too.

      https://www.tradingview.com/x/4RGfDPOC/

      TJ

      Delete
  5. SPX500 (CFD) 2-hr: now up and over the triangle.

    https://www.tradingview.com/x/wvcoPJUb/

    TJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ES now over the prior ATH; "minimum' triangle expectation met. Can go further.
      TJ

      Delete
  6. SPX500 (CFD) 30-min: from the intraday wave-counting-screen. Four consecutive closes over the upper band drops the odds to 2 - 4% of the next close outside the band (not impossible, just lower odds).

    https://www.tradingview.com/x/k4b2RqGm/

    And a tag on daily pivot R3.
    TJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Closes inside the band, now resets the number of consecutive closes.

      https://www.tradingview.com/x/WNfhpfp0/

      TJ

      Delete
  7. A new post is started for the next day.
    TJ

    ReplyDelete