As of 04/19/2024
Indus: 37,986 +211.02 +0.6%
Trans: 15,084 +136.79 +0.9%
Utils: 876 +15.31 +1.8%
Nasdaq: 15,282 -319.49 -2.0%
S&P 500: 4,967 -43.89 -0.9%
|
YTD
+0.8%
-5.1%
-0.7%
+1.8%
+4.1%
|
 39,800 or 37,150 by 05/01/202416,200 or 15,000 by 05/01/2024885 or 850 by 05/01/202416,700 or 15,800 by 05/01/20245,250 or 5,025 by 05/01/2024 |
As of 04/19/2024
Indus: 37,986 +211.02 +0.6%
Trans: 15,084 +136.79 +0.9%
Utils: 876 +15.31 +1.8%
Nasdaq: 15,282 -319.49 -2.0%
S&P 500: 4,967 -43.89 -0.9%
|
YTD
+0.8%
-5.1%
-0.7%
+1.8%
+4.1%
| |
|
39,800 or 37,150 by 05/01/202416,200 or 15,000 by 05/01/2024885 or 850 by 05/01/202416,700 or 15,800 by 05/01/20245,250 or 5,025 by 05/01/2024 | ||
Revised May 8, 2013. Statistics updated 8/27/2020.
The bullish Wolfe wave is a variation of a falling wedge, developed by Bill Wolfe. This article discusses identification and how well the chart pattern works. It is based on Wolfe's description of the pattern and the charts that accompany his description. It does not include any proprietary techniques, nor did I search out any of those techniques.
Bullish Wolfe Wave
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The above numbers are based on more than 5,000 perfect trades. See the glossary for definitions.
Identification has many rules and should be followed in the order shown below. The picture to the right will help. The chart pattern will be a falling wedge dictated by the various turning points.
| Characteristic | Discussion | 
Turning Points
|
| Point 2 | This point is any peak (minor high) on the chart. | |
| Point 3 | This is the bottom of the hill formed by point 2. | |
| Point 1* | Wolfe describes the point this way: "The 1 point is the bottom prior to point 2 (top), that 3 has surpassed." | |
| Point 4 | The is the top of the hill formed after point 3. Point 4 must be below the price of 2, otherwise lines 24 and 13 will not converge. | |
| Point 5 | This is the bottom of the hill formed by point 4. It need not bottom on line 13. | |
| Converging Lines | Lines 13 and 24, extended into the future, must converge. If they do not, then you do not have a Wolfe Wave. | |
| Other Rules | There should not be another higher peak or lower valley between the various turning points 1 through 5. In other words, a peak higher than 4 should not appear between points 3 and 5 nor should a valley lower than 3 appear between points 2 and 4. |
* I asked for Bill Wolfe's help on this since 17 of his charts showed seven of them not forming bottoms at point 1 (price was making a straight-line run or even a gap). I asked why his charts didn't match his text. His one sentence response: "When did you take my [$3,000] course?"
I decided to answer it myself and found that if point 1 is a minor low instead of a straight-line run, the pattern works slightly better. The numbers in this article are based on 1 being a turning point (minor low).
Reference the figure on the right.
| Trading Tactic | Explanation | 
Wolfe Wave Trading
|
| Sweet Spot | Draw a line parallel to line 24 beginning at point 3 and extend it to 5. The difference between this line and point 5 is the sweet spot. I show that at A as a circle. According to Wolfe, when price is in this area, buy. | |
| EPA | Wolfe calls this the Estimate Price at Arrival. It is the price where the stock touches line 14 extended into the future. If this line is too steep, obviously price won't reach it. | |
| ETA | This is the Estimated Time of Arrival. The date converging lines 13 and 24, extended into the future, join to form the apex is called the ETA. Price should reach the EPA on this date (shown as a vertical line). This rarely works. | |
| Sell | Wolfe writes that he uses the EPA line as a sell signal. When price reaches the EPA line, sell. |
The figure on the right shows an example of a bullish Wolfe wave.
Price bounces between the turning points, matching the identification guidelines. Extending lines 13 and 24 into the future show that they converge to join at the apex.
When price drops below line 13, it enters the sweet spot (forming point 5). Buy. Not shown is line 24 drawn parallel starting from point 3 to bracket the sweet spot.
Price recovers and touches the green EPA line. That is the sell signal.
Notice that price does not touch the intersection of the EPA and ETA lines like it's supposed to. That rarely happens, which is why it's better to sell when price touches the EPA line.
I programmed my computer to automatically identify Wolfe wave patterns. To find peaks and valleys, I found all minor highs and lows within 3 days (3 days before to 3 days after, 7 days total). I used 3,522 stocks starting from January 1990 to July 2019 and found 6,269 Wolfe waves. Not all stocks covered the entire period. Excluded were potential patterns with a low price below $5 at the time the pattern formed.
I measured the move from the low at point 5 to the EPA line and to various end points, such as the ultimate high. I only accepted those patterns with point 5 bottoming within the sweet spot.
Those performance measures that include the ultimate high should be viewed as perfect trades. Entry is made at the low price at bottom 5 and riding it up until it peaks just before price tumbles at least 20%. That type of performance cannot be duplicated in real life. The numbers should only be used for comparison to other chart patterns using the same methodology.
| Criteria | Result |
|
| Number of patterns | 6,269 | |
| Number reaching the ultimate high | 35% | |
| Number reaching the EPA line before being stopped out | 15% | |
| Number stopped out (price falls below point 5) | 49% | |
| Out of data | 2% | |
| Total | 100% | |
Table 1 shows how the pattern behaved. The figure on the right may also help. Please note that I did not filter the Wolfe wave patterns by heavy volume at point 5, the slope of the lines or most other considerations (like the price trend leading to the pattern). Wolfe hints that there are other criteria he uses to select better trading setups, so keep that in mind. Consider this the bare-bones setup.
The ultimate high is the highest high before price drops at least 20%. Thirty-five percent of 6,269 reached the ultimate high.
Another 15% were stopped out but touched the EPA line first before declining below the low at point 5, ending the search for the ultimate high. This tells a trader how dangerous it is to hold onto a stock for more gains once it reaches the EPA target.
Forty-nine percent were stopped out on their way to the ultimate high. Again, this happens when price turns at point 5, rises some, but then declines below the low at point 5.
The remaining three percent were stocks that ran out of data before hitting any of the other benchmarks.
| Criteria | Result |
|
| Number reaching the EPA line | 41% | |
| Number climbing to point 2 | 36% | |
| Number climbing to point 4 | 56% | |
| Average rise to EPA line | 12% | |
| Average gain to ultimate high | 23% | |
| 5% failure rate | 16% | |
| Average time to reach EPA line | 14 days | |
| Average time to reach ultimate high | 81 days |
Table 2 dices the statistics differently than in Table 1.
The number of Wolfe waves with price reaching the EPA line was 41%. This is a different measure than the one just discussed (where 15% reach the EPA line and then drop). This measure is the number of patterns that touched the EPA line on the way to the ultimate high. The ultimate high was not reached yet, nor was the stock stopped out before reaching the EPA line. Think of this as the measure rule for the Wolfe wave. It is the number of trades that reached the EPA line.
To put the performance into visual perspective, I measured how many patterns reached point 2 and 4 which the table shows. I also measured the move to the ultimate high. This measures from the low at point 5 to the high at the ultimate high (the highest high before price drops by at least 20%).
The 5% failure rate is a count of how many patterns see price rise by less than 5% from point 5 before dropping below the bottom of the pattern (that is, below point 5). The 16% rate I consider high but other chart patterns perform worse.
The remaining lines in Table 1 detail how long it takes to reach the EPA line and the ultimate high. This is in calendar days, not price bars.
-- Thomas Bulkowski
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