According to P.Q.Wall research, October 8 through 10,2002 was the end of a 5,5 year Kitchin cycle. It was the low for the DJIA, the NASDAQ Composite Index, the NASDAQ 100 and the New York Composite Index.
On December 02, 2005, ELLIOTT today had this to say:
A bullish alternate count, points to 5863, the 0.618 Fibonacci retracement of the decline from the year 2000. Waves 1,2,3 and 4 off the August 2004 low can be counted as a bullish 1-2, (i)-(ii), too, suggesting a super bullish wave 3 of 5 of (c) lies ahead. If so, (we are dealing with possibilities) such a target could be achieved in the first quarter of 2006. For the time being, we're watching the levels given by the Gann lines at 4800, 4600 and 4100.
So far, this was a good description of what has been developing. From an Elliott standpoint, the big news is that the DAX has just traced out five waves up from the March 2003 low, a clear cut impulse wave. From a wave perspective, the upper parallel trend channel line points to much higher prices, probably into the 6500s area, depending on the time window. Under the preferred interpretation, which views the pattern as a five-wave structure, wave (1) gained 90%, wave (3) gained 71%. Thus, wave (5) now underway should be shorter than wave (3) since wave three "is often the longest and never the shortest of the three impulse waves in a five-wave sequence." (EWP,p.53).
In markets, progress ultimately takes the form of five waves of a specific structure. Waves 1, 3 and 5 actually effect the directional movement. Waves 2 and 4 are countertrend interruptions. The two interruptions are apparently a requisite for overall directional movement to occur. Elliott noted three consistent aspects of the five-wave form. They are: Wave two never moves beyond the start of wave one, wave three is never the shortest wave, and wave four never enters the price territory of wave one. The stock market is always somewhere in the five-wave pattern at the largest degree of trend. Because the five-wave pattern is the overriding form of
market progress, all other patterns are subsumed by it. In the case of the DAX, the five pattern is clearly visible. The only question is, whether its wave five of large degree or wave A as part of a much bigger corrective formation.
The May to June/July swan is best counted as wave four and the fact that the correction displayed a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of wave (3) supports the analysis. Further evidence for a wave four triangle can be gleaned from the fact, that at the end of the triangle, wave (4) corrected 23.6% which is 0.618 of 38.2%. The steady upward move since August confirms the action following a triangle, in fact R.N.Elliott called it a "thrust." More often than not, fifth waves tend to reach the upper parallel line of an Elliott trend channel which in the case of the DAX is the area of 6800+ and that's also the area of a 0.786 Fibonacci retracement of the decline 8136 to 2188. This doesn't mean the DAX has to go to that level. As the chart reveals, five waves up from the July lows can be counted as complete or nearly so indicating the market may have reached an important juncture.
Going all the way back to October/December 1974, important lows (in the Dow) occurred in March 1978, September 1981, July 1984, October 1987, January 1991, April 1994 and October 1997. Each is separated by 3 years plus 3-6 months, the only exception being the 1984 low, which came five months early. Since 1990, each 3.3 year cycle correction has been outrageously shallow, which has thrown us off the track three times. It bottomed again on schedule at the October 1997 low. The 1997 bottom brought the infamous market meltdown in Asia. Its next scheduled bottom was September 2001right in time with the terrorist attack against the WTC in New York. In August 2004 the cycle was relative mild and the leap out of the bottom produced a very strong up move supporting the fact that wave (3) in the DAX was underway. If this cycle progresses accordingly the next
major cycle low is expected in late 2007. When larger cycles are down (as in this case the 5.5 year Kitchen), smaller cycles often top early, and when they do, they end in a crash, as in 1929 and 1987.
Summary: Elliott waves, momentum, sentiment indicators and cycles indicate that the 3.3. year cycle is being overwhelmed by bearish forces right now. As the chart reveals, the 5.5 year Kitchen cycle is declining sharply against an upward bias in the market and a drop larger than the April-June 2006 correction strongly suggests, that the DAX has reached a top of major proportion. It would therefore constitute a warning that larger downward forces have gained the upper hand.
Labeling the low of March 2003 as Cycle wave A the up move since than should be Cycle wave B. Within Cycle wave B
the first Elliott structure, namely Primary wave [a] is nearly complete. Cycle analysis suggests that probably in the third quarter of 2007 a major cycle low in due (Primary wave
?). If so, Primary wave [c] is due to complete an upward zigzag of Cycle degree.
It is imperative to understand that certainty about the probabilities is not the same as certainty about one specific outcome. Under no circumstance does anyone ever know exactly what the market is going to do. Since Elliott wave analysis is based upon price patterns, a pattern identified as having completed is either over, or it isn't. If the market changes direction, the analyst has caught the turn. If the market moves beyond what the apparently completed pattern would have allowed, the position is wrong. Although there are many guidelines to successful forecasting, it is rarely given to the analyst in advance what the precise time forecast for an ongoing pattern juncture can be made successfully, although such is usually reserved for the latter stages of a developing pattern. With regard to forecasting price patterns for trends, the Wave Principle is the only method of analysis which can occasionally yield stunning results.