Impulse Rules:
An Impulse is a five Wave pattern labeled 1-2-3-4-5 moving in the direction of the larger trend. It is the most common Elliott Wave pattern.
Wave 1 must be an Impulse or a Leading Diagonal.
Wave 2 may be any corrective pattern except a Triangle.
No part of Wave 2 can more than retrace Wave 1.
Wave 2 must retrace Wave 1 by a minimum of 20%.
The maximum time for Wave 2 is nine times Wave 1.
Wave 3 must be an Impulse.
Wave 3 must be longer than Wave 2 in gross distance by price.
The gross price movement of Wave 2 must be greater than either Wave 2 of Wave 1 or Wave 4 of Wave 1. The gross price movement of Wave 2 must also be greater than either Wave 2 of Wave 3 or Wave 4 of Wave 3. Wave 2 must also be greater than 61.8% of the gross movement of each of the above 4 sub-Waves.
Wave 3 and Wave 1 cannot both have 5th Wave failures. (A Failure is an impulsive Wave where Wave 5 is shorter than Wave 4 by price.)
Wave 3 cannot be less than 1/3 of Wave 1 by price.
Wave 3 cannot be more than 7 times Wave 1 by price.
Although there is no minimum time constraint for Wave 3, its absolute maximum time limit is 7 times Wave 1.
Wave 4 can be any corrective pattern.
Waves 1, 2 and 4 cannot overlap except by 15% of Wave 2 with leveraged securities, and then only for a maximum of less than two days.
The gross price movement of Wave 4 must be greater than either the gross movement of Wave 2 of 3 or Wave 4 of 3. The gross price movement of Wave 4 must also be greater than either the gross movement of Wave 2 of 5 or Wave 4 of 5. The gross movement by price of Wave 4 must also be greater than 61.8% of the gross movement of each of these four subwaves.
The gross movement by price of Wave 4 must be greater than 1/3 of the gross movement of Wave 2 by both price and percentage movement.
The gross movement by price for Wave 4 must be less than three times the gross movement of Wave 2 by both price and percentage movement.
Wave 3 and Wave 4 cannot both be failures. (A Failure is an impulsive Wave where Wave 5 is shorter than Wave 4 by price.)
Although Wave 4 has no minimum time constraint, the maximum time for Wave 4 is twice the time taken by Wave 3.
Wave 5 must be an Impulse or an Ending Diagonal. However, if Wave 5 is longer than Wave 3 by price, then Wave 5 must be an Impulse.
Wave 5 must move by price more than 70% of Wave 4. (This is not gross movement. Only consider the end points of both Waves.)
Wave 3 must never be shorter than both Wave 1 and 5, by either price distance or percentage price movement.
If Wave 5 is truncated, or contains an Impulse that is truncated, then neither Wave 3 nor Wave 4 can contain a subwave that is truncated. (A truncated pattern is where Wave 5 is shorter than Wave 4. This is also known as a failure.)
The maximum movement of Wave 5 is six times Wave 3 in both price and time.
Wave 5 has no minimum time constraint.