Trading the Elliott Wave General Basic Theory Patterns Channeling Fibonacci ratios 1. He discovered that stock markets do not behave in a chaotic manner, but that markets move in repetitive cycles, which reflect the actions and emotions of humans caused by exterior influences or mass psychology. Elliott contended, that the ebb and flow of mass psychology always revealed itself in the same repetitive patterns, which subdivide in so called waves. In part Elliott based his work on the Dow Theory, which also defines price movement in terms of waves, but Elliott discovered the fractal nature of market action. Thus Elliott was able to analyse markets in greater depth, identifying the specific characteristics of wave patterns and making detailed market predictions based on the patterns he had identified.
Fractals are mathematical structures, which on an ever smaller scale infinitely repeat themselves.
The patterns that Elliott discovered are built in the same way. An impulsive wave, which goes with the main trend, always shows five waves in its pattern. On a smaller scale, within each of the impulsive waves of the before mentioned impulse, again five waves will be found. Only much later were fractals recognized by scientists. He recognized the fractal structure in numerous objects and life forms, a phenomena Elliott already understood in the 1930s.