How do you start counting Elliott Waves?

Start on the higher timeframe (weekly or daily chart) and identify the most obvious 5-wave impulse you can see. Label the highest-degree structure first, then progressively zoom in to lower timeframes for sub-wave labels.

The single most important rule for beginners: start high, work down. Open the weekly chart of a liquid instrument (SPY, QQQ, or a megacap stock), identify the most recent obvious swing low, and label what looks like a clear 5-wave impulse from there. Don't worry about sub-waves yet — at this stage you just need the high-level structure visible. Once the weekly labels are in place, switch to the daily chart and label the sub-waves inside what you called Wave 1, then Wave 3, then Wave 5 on the weekly. Then drop to the 60-minute and label sub-sub-waves inside the daily Wave 1, and so on. This top-down approach prevents the most common beginner mistake: getting lost in low-timeframe noise without higher-degree context.

• → Elliott Wave Theory Guide — the 5-3 pattern, rules, Fibonacci, wave degrees
• → How to Count Elliott Waves — 6-step process used on 108 instruments
• → Elliott Wave Fibonacci Guide — the 7 core ratios and how they're applied
• → Rules and Guidelines — the 3 absolute rules + 7 guidelines

RELATED QUESTIONS

Weekly wave counts on 108 US instruments

Every Monday Artavest publishes fresh wave counts with primary count, alternate count, and explicit invalidation levels.