The Elliott Wave Principle at its core consists of motive waves, movement in the direction of the larger trend, and corrective waves, any correction against the main trend. Market prices alternate between a motive phase, and a corrective phase on all time scales of trend
Please refer to Elliott-Wave-Theory - Motive-Waves post covering rules and tendencies of motive waves, participants psychology at every stage of an motive wave and how to identify/forcast them using both fibonacci relations as well as channeling technique (price action).
This post is about Corrective waves. Corrective waves have a lot more variety and less clearly identifiable compared to Motive waves and are an important component of the Elliott Wave Theory. Corrective waves needs more attention and to be mastered to become a successfull Elliott wave practitioner
Corrective Waves Corrective waves, consist of three—or a combination of three—sub-waves that make net movement in the direction opposite to the trend of one larger degree
There are many corrective patterns ranging from simple to complex yet they are just made up of three very simple easy-to-understand formations
Disclaimer: below presented figures displays guidelines that elliott waves may form. Guidelines are tendencies, not set in stone rules
a - ZigZag Corrective Wave (5-3-5) Consist of three sub-waves against the main trend and labeled as ABC. ZigZag is a 5-3-5 structure internally
b - Flat Corrective Wave (3-3-5) Consist of three sub-waves against the main trend and labeled as ABC. The labelling is the same as ZigZag, the difference is in internal structure. Flat is a 3-3-5 structure internally and differs from ZigZag in the subdivision of the wave A.
There are three different types of Flats: Regular, Running and Expanded Flats.
c - Triangle Corrective Wave (3-3-3-3-3) Triangle formations are corrective patterns that are bound by either converging or diverging trend lines. Corrective structure consist of five sub-waves labelled as ABCDE, subdivision of a triangle is 3-3-3-3-3
Triangle corrective waves types can be listed as : Ascending, Descending, Symmetrical, and Expanding Triangles
d - Complex Corrective Waves - Double (3-3-3) and Tripple Three (3-3-3-3-3) Double three is a sideways combination of two corrective patterns, labelled as WXY Triple three is a sideways combination of three corrective patterns, labelled as WXYXZ
Please refer to Difference between ABC and WXY, for further details and structures of Complex Corrective waves as well as the differences between Simple corrective structures
The Elliott Wave Theory provides constructive insight that can help technical analysts monitor and understand the movements of financial asset prices over the short and long term. Please note that these patterns do not provide any kind of certainty about future price movement, but rather, serve in helping to order the probabilities for future market action. They can be used in conjunction with other forms of technical and fundamental analysis, including technical indicators, to identify specific opportunities.
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