I posted this in my blog today, thought it might be appropriate here in this thread.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/caldaroEW/
LONG TERM: bull market
We have been in a major bull market since Oct. 2002. Many perceive this three year advance as a counter trend rally in an ongoing Super Cycle bear market that started at the 2000 top. I disagree with that perception for basically two reasons:
First...the Nasdaq declined 89% between 2000 and 2002. I have never seen, in the history of the stock market, a decline that severe not end a Super Cycle. If anyone knows of an instance when a bear market continued, please advise.
Second...bear market counter trend rallies are always three waves, ABC. We had three waves up from the bottom: Oct. 2002 - Jan. 2004, but the market only corrected from there and we've been impulsing upward, in five wave patterns, ever since the end of that correction in Aug/Oct 2004. In fact, all major indices have since exceeded the highs of Jan. 2004. Thus, we are in a subdividing fifth wave up from Oct. 2002, and this is a bull market.
If you review the chart posted for the SPX, you will see the same exact EW count I have had since the bull market began. I have only updated my charts as the completion of waves occur.
Specifically, we are currently in wave V, and it has been subdividing into five waves 1-2-3-4-5. Wave 3 is also subdividing into fives waves i-ii-iii-iv-v. We are now in wave iii, of wave 3, of wave V. After this uptrend ends, the market will correct in a wave iv, followed by another uptrend like this one, to end wave v of 3, and thus ending wave 3. We will then witness a significant correction, wave 4, only to be followed by a major and last advance wave 5, which will end wave V and the bull market.
Simply stated: there will be two more major uptrends, like the one we are experiencing now, before the bull market ends.
How can I be so sure? Objective EW has been functioning like clockwork for the past 20 years. I backtested it, for the entire history of the stock market in the early 1980's. That's how I knew it worked then. And, that's how I know it still works now.