S&P 500: 65 Thousand Feet View

Monthly Chart Analysis

Current Status: Last Updated on Thursday November 03, 2016

Current Trend: Uptrend Under Pressure
Last Pattern: Rectangle (broken in Apr-13)
Current Streak: 3 Down months
Last Six Months 3 Up months
Last High 2193.81 in August 2016
High Month Low Month
Last Swing 2116.48 Feb-16 1810.10 Nov-16
Previous Swing 2134.72 May-15 1867.01 Aug-15
Pivot: 2136.83
R1: 2158.92 S1: 2104.06
R2: 2191.69 S2: 2181.97
R3: 2213.78 S3: 2049.20

Significant Levels:

  • Support: 38.2% Fibonacci retracement from swing low of 1810.10 is 2047.23, which also coincides with the lower bound (2044.37) of the regression channel that the index has closed below only twice since March 2009 – once in September 2011 for one month and then in February 2016, also for one month
  • S&P 500 reached the 61.8% Fibonacci extension target of 2138.04 from the last broken chart pattern – a rectangle trading range – in July 2016
  • Target: The 100% extension of the rectangle trading range is 2485.39, which is 301 points or 13.8% away from current price
S&P 500 Monthly - 03-Nov-2016

S&P 500 Monthly – 03-Nov-2016

Updated on Thursday September 01, 2016

Current Trend: Uptrend
Last Pattern: Rectangle (broken in Apr-13)
Current Streak: 1 Down month
Last Six Months 5 Up months
Last High 2193.81 in August 2016
High Month Low Month
Last Swing 2116.48 Feb-16 1810.10 Nov-16
Previous Swing 2134.72 May-15 1867.01 Aug-15
Pivot: 2170.78
R1: 2193.98 S1: 2147.75
R2: 2217.01 S2: 2124.55
R3: 2240.21 S3: 2101.52

Significant Levels:

  • Support: 38.2% Fibonacci retracement from swing low of 1810.10 is 2047.23, which also coincides with the lower bound (2044.37) of the regression channel that the index has closed below only twice since March 2009 – once in September 2011 for one month and then in February 2016, also for one month
  • S&P 500 reached the 61.8% Fibonacci extension target of 2138.04 from the last broken chart pattern – a rectangle trading range – in July 2016
  • Target: The 100% extension of the rectangle trading range is 2485.39, which is 301 points or 13.8% away from current price

Update On Friday August 19, 2016

S&P 500 Monthly - 19-Aug-2016

Rectangle Trading Range

The S&P 500 is still on an ever extending up move. In the last twenty years, markets had two major melt-downs and two major tops excluding the current rally. These reversal points formed a nice looking rectangle trading box for the S&P 500. The upper limit is bounded by the highs of 1553.11 and 1576.09 reached in March 2000 and October 2007 respectively. The lower limit is bounded by the lows of 768.77 and 666.79 reached in October 2002 and March 2009. The index broke above this rectangle in March 2013. Since then it has been on an upward trend.

The height of the box is roughly 909 points (from highest to lowest). The measured target of this patterns using Fibonacci levels are (i) 2138.04 at 61.8% extension; (ii) 2485.39 at 100% extension; and (iii) 3047.34 at 161.8% extension

ABCD Pattern

We can view this as an ABCD patterns too, whereas ‘A’ is 768.77, ‘B’ is 1576.09 and ‘C’ is 666.79. Using the Fibonacci extension of BC from point ‘C’, we get the projected levels of ‘D’ to be: (i) 2138.04 using 161.8% extension and (ii) 3047.34 using 261.8%

The 2015 high was 2134.72 reached in May, which corresponds with 61.8% extension of the rectangle trading box and 161.8% extension of the ABCD pattern. The index took more than thirteen months to break above this level. The next target in play is 3047.34, which is close to 40% above the current level. The annual rate if change for S&P 500 since 1971 has been approximately 7.13%. Using this average, it will take S&P 500 five years to reach 3047.34.

Technical Indicators

The two major downturns in the index also coincided with the cross-over of 12-months and 24-months moving averages. In April 2001 and July 2008, the 12-month MA crossed below 24-month MA. Both averages and the price was already falling before this cross over.

In May 2016, the 12-month MA crossed below 24-month MA. In July it again crossed above the slow MA. However, the price and the 24-month MA were rising when the first cross over occurred.

Also, in 2000 and 2007, the 9-period RSI was above 70 and making a diverging from the price. So far this time the RSI has not crossed above the overbought levels.

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