Experience has shown that keeping your count as simple as possible is most often the best course of action. Impulse waves are almost always extended. So stack the odds in your favor and start counting them as such. Corrections are almost always a simple variety and not a combination, so start counting them as such. Start counting as simple as possible and let the market tell you that the structure is more complex. If you memorize the rules and subdivisions, you can go through a count very quickly. For instance, if you are expecting a correction, and the initial move against the trend is 3 waves yet the guidelines are not met, then expect a flat. The internal subdivisions are 3-3-5. Of the initial move against the trend is 5 waves, then expect a zigzag. If wave 2 was a flat and wave 4 begins with 3 waves, expect a triangle. You’ve read the guidelines. You know the rules. Apply them logically and in the simplest manner possible.
Sometimes it’s easier to memorized which type of wave goes with which pattern. Here’s a list of possibilities.
- Wave 1 – Impulse, Diagonal, Zigzag (within a diagonal)
- Wave 2 – Zigzag, Flat, Combination
- Wave 3 – Impulse, Zigzag (within a diagonal)
- Wave 4 – Zigzag, Flat, Triangle, Combination
- Wave 5 – Impulse, Diagonal, Zigzag (within a diagonal)
- Wave A – Impulse, Diagonal, Zigzag, Flat, Combination
- Wave B – Zigzag, Flat, Triangle, Combination
- Wave C – Impulse, Diagonal, Zigzag or Zigzag Combo within a triangle
- Wave D – Zigzag or Zigzag combo
- Wave E – Zigzag, Zigzag combo, Triangle
- Wave W – Zigzag, Flat
- Wave X – Zigzag, Flat, Triangle, Combination
- Wave Y – Zigzag, Flat, Triangle
- Wave Z – Zigzag, Flat, Triangle
Every persons brain is wired a bit differently, so other times it easier to know which patterns CANNOT exist within a wave label.
- Wave 1 – Flat, Combination, Triangle
- Wave 2 – Impulse, Diagonal, Triangle
- Wave 3 – Flat, Combination, Triangle, Diagonal
- Wave 4 – Impulse, Diagonal
- Wave 5 –