The S&P 500 has been playing out exactly as forecast in last week’s Sentient Trader Outlook. Price formed a peak of the 40-day cycle at 1229.50 on 31 August, and then turned down towards the 40-day cycle trough.

SP500 (data to 6 September)

We are now expecting the 40-day trough, and then a move up which will most likely be brief and disappointing, as shown by the low-hanging red-filled projection box. The underlying trend is fairly strongly down (although neutral considering only the 80-day and 20-week cycles), which is why the move up is likely to disappoint. Price is caught up in an FLD congestion pause zone, and so it might experience a bit of a kick up when it breaks free of that (which is why the upwards projection is fairly wide-ranging), but the underlying trend will soon bring it down again.

It is possible that the 40-day trough was formed yesterday as price dipped into the target zone (in terms of price and time).

SP500 up to 6 September

The trough will be confirmed when the median price crosses one of the FLD or VTL levels shown on the above median-price chart.