The Meaning Of Phi - PHI AND THE STOCK MARKET

The Meaning Of Phi

The value of this ubiquitous phenomenon was deeply understood and profoundly appreciated by the greatest intellects of the ages. History abounds with examples of exceptionally learned men who held a special fascination for this mathematical formulation. Pythagoras chose the five-pointed star, in which every segment is in golden ratio to the next smaller segment, as the symbol of his Order; celebrated 17th century mathematician Jacob Bernoulli had the Golden Spiral etched into his headstone; Isaac Newton had the same spiral carved on the headboard of his bed (owned today by the Gravity Foundation, New Boston, NH). The earliest known aficionados were the architects of the Gizeh pyramid in Egypt, who recorded the knowledge of phi in its construction nearly 5000 years ago. Egyptian engineers consciously incorporated the Golden Ratio in the Great Pyramid by giving its faces a slope height equal to 1.618 times half its base, so that the vertical height of the pyramid is at the same time the square root of 1.618 times half its base. According to Peter Tompkins, author of Secrets of the Great Pyramid (Harper & Row, 1971), 'This relation shows Herodotus' report to be indeed correct, in that the square of the height of the pyramid is f x f f, and the areas of the face 1 x f f.' Furthermore, using these proportions, the Egyptian scientists (apparently in order to build a scale model of the Northern Hemisphere) used pi and phi in an approach so mathematically sophisticated that it accomplished the feat of squaring the circle and cubing the sphere (i.e., making them of equal area and volume), a feat which was not duplicated for well over four thousand years.

While the mere mention of the Great Pyramid may serve as an engraved invitation to skepticism (perhaps for good reason), keep in mind that its form reflects the same fascination held by pillars of Western scientific, mathematical, artistic and philosophic thought, including Plato, Pythagoras, Bernoulli, Kepler, DaVinci and Newton. Those who designed and built the pyramid were likewise demonstrably brilliant scientists, astronomers, mathematicians and engineers. Clearly they wanted to enshrine for millennia the Golden Ratio as something of transcendent importance. That such a caliber of people, who were later joined by some of the greatest minds of Greece and the Enlightenment in their fascination for this ratio, undertook this task is itself important. As for why, all we have is conjecture from a few authors. Yet that conjecture, however obtuse, curiously pertains to our own observations. It has been surmised that the Great Pyramid, for centuries after it was built, was used as a temple of initiation for those who proved themselves worthy of understanding the great universal secrets. Only those who could rise above the crude acceptance of things as they seemed to discover what, in actuality, they were, could be instructed in 'the mysteries,' i.e., the complex truths of eternal order and growth. Did such 'mysteries' include phi? Tompkins explains, 'The pharaonic Egyptians, says Schwaller de Lubicz, considered phi not as a number, but as a symbol of the creative function, or of reproduction in an endless series. To them it represented `the fire of life, the male action of sperm, the logos [referenced in] the gospel of St. John.'' Logos, a Greek word, was defined variously by Heraclitus and subsequent pagan, Jewish and Christian philosophers as meaning the rational order of the universe, an immanent natural law, a life-giving force hidden within things, the universal structural force governing and permeating the world.

Consider when reading such deep yet vague descriptions that these people could not clearly see what they sensed. They did not have graphs and the Wave Principle to make nature's growth pattern manifest and were doing the best they could to describe an organizational principle that they discerned as shaping the natural world. If these ancient philosophers were right that a universal structural force governs and permeates the world, should it not govern and permeate the world of man? If forms throughout the universe, including man's body, brain and DNA, reflect the form of phi, might man's activities reflect it as well? If phi is the life-force in the universe, might it be the impulse behind the progress in man's productive capacity? If phi is a symbol of the creative function, might it govern the creative activity of man? If man's progress is based upon production and reproduction 'in an endless series,' is it not reasonable that such progress has the spiraling form of phi, and that this form is discernible in the movement of the valuation of his productive capacity, i.e., the stock market? Just as the initiated Egyptians learned the hidden truths of order and growth in the universe behind the apparent randomness and chaos (something that modern 'chaos theory' has finally rediscovered in the 1980s), so the stock market, in our opinion, can be understood properly if it is taken for what it is rather than for what it crudely appears to be upon cursory consideration. The stock market is not a random, formless mess reacting to current news events but a remarkably precise recording of the formal structure of the progress of man.

Compare this concept with astronomer William Kingsland's words in The Great Pyramid in Fact and in Theory that Egyptian astronomy/astrology was a 'profoundly esoteric science connected with the great cycles of man's evolution.' The Wave Principle explains the great cycles of man's evolution and reveals how and why they unfold as they do. Moreover, it encompasses micro as well as macro scales, all of which are based upon a paradoxical principle of dynamism and variation within an unaltered form.

It is this form that gives structure and unity to the universe. Nothing in nature suggests that life is disorderly or formless. The word 'universe' means 'one order.' If life has form, then we must not reject the probability that human progress, which is part of the reality of life, also has order and form. By extension, the stock market, which values man's productive enterprise, will have order and form as well. All technical approaches to understanding the stock market depend on the basic principle of order and form. Elliott's theory, however, goes beyond all others. It postulates that no matter how minute or how large the form, the basic design remains constant.

Elliott, in his second monograph, used the title Nature's Law The Secret of the Universe in preference to 'The Wave Principle' and applied it to all sorts of human activity. Elliott may have gone too far in saying that the Wave Principle was the secret of the universe, as nature appears to have created numerous forms and processes, not just one simple design. Nevertheless, some of history's greatest scientists, mentioned earlier, would probably have agreed with Elliott's formulation. At minimum, it is credible to say that the Wave Principle is one of the most important secrets of the universe. Even this grandiose claim at first may appear to be only so much tall talk to practically-minded investors, and quite understandably so. The grand nature of the concept stretches the imagination and confounds the intellect, while its applicability is as yet unclear. First we must ask, can we both theorize and observe that there is indeed a principle that operates on the same mathematical basis in the heavens and earth as it does in the stock market?

The answer is yes. The stock market has the very same mathematical base as do these natural phenomena. The idealized Elliott concept of the progression of the stock market is an excellent base from which to construct the Golden Spiral, as Figure 3-10 illustrates with a rough approximation. In this construction, the top of each successive wave of higher degree is the touch point of the logarithmic expansion.

Figure 3-10

This result is possible because at every degree of stock market activity, a bull market subdivides into five waves and a bear market subdivides into three waves, giving us the 5-3 relationship that is the mathematical basis of the Elliott Wave Principle. We can generate the complete Fibonacci sequence, as we first did in Figure 1-4, by using Elliott's concept of the progression of the market. If we start with the simplest expression of the concept of a bear swing, we get one straight line decline. A bull swing, in its simplest form, is one straight line advance. A complete cycle is two lines. In the next degree of complexity, the corresponding numbers are 3, 5 and 8. As illustrated in Figure 3-11, this sequence can be taken to infinity.

Figure 3-11

PHI AND THE STOCK MARKET

The stock market's patterns are repetitive (and fractal, to use today's terminology) in that the same basic pattern of movement that shows up in minor waves, using hourly plots, shows up in Supercycles and Grand Supercycles, using yearly plots. Figures 3-12 and 3-13 show two charts, one reflecting the hourly fluctuations in the Dow over a ten day period from June 25th to July 10th, 1962 and the other a yearly plot of the S&P 500 Index from 1932 to 1978 (courtesy of The Media General Financial Weekly). Both plots indicate similar patterns of movement despite a difference in the time span of over 1500 to 1. The long term formulation is still unfolding, as wave V from the 1974 low has not run its full course, but to date the pattern is along lines parallel to the hourly chart. Why? Because in the stock market, form is not a slave to the time element. Under Elliott's rules, both short and long term plots reflect a 5-3 relationship that can be aligned with the form that reflects the properties of the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. This truth suggests that collectively, man's emotions, in their expression, are keyed to this mathematical law of nature.

Now compare the formations shown in Figures 3-14 and 3-15. Each illustrates the natural law of the inwardly directed Golden Spiral and is governed by the Fibonacci ratio. Each wave relates to the previous wave by .618. In fact, the distances in terms of the Dow points themselves reflect Fibonacci mathematics. In Figure 3-14, showing the 1930-1942 sequence, the market swings cover approximately 260, 160, 100, 60, and 38 points respectively, closely resembling the declining list of Fibonacci ratios: 2.618, 1.618, 1.00, .618 and .382.

Figure 3-14

Figure 3-15

Starting with wave X in the 1977 upward correction shown in Figure 3-15, the swings are almost exactly 55 points (wave X), 34 points (waves A through C), 21 points (wave d), 13 points (wave a of e) and 8 points (wave b of e), the Fibonacci sequence itself. The total net gain from beginning to end is 13 points, and the apex of the triangle lies exactly on the level of the correction's beginning at 930, which is also the level of the peak of the subsequent reflex rally in June. Whether one takes the actual number of points in the waves as coincidence or part of the design, one can be certain that the precision manifest in the constant .618 ratio between each successive wave is not coincidence. Lessons 20 through 25 and 30 will elaborate substantially on the appearance of the Fibonacci ratio in market patterns.

Fibonacci Mathematics in the Structure of the Wave Principle

Even the ordered structural complexity of Elliott Wave forms reflects the Fibonacci sequence. There is 1 basic form: the five wave sequence. There are 2 modes of waves: motive (which subdivide into the cardinal class of waves, numbered) and corrective (which subdivide into the consonant class of waves, lettered). There are 3 orders of simple patterns of waves: fives, threes and triangles (which have characteristics of both fives and threes). There are 5 families of simple patterns: impulse, diagonal triangle, zigzag, flat and triangle. There are 13 variations of simple patterns: impulse, ending diagonal, leading diagonal, zigzag, double zigzag, triple zigzag, regular flat, expanded flat, running flat, contracting triangle, descending triangle, ascending triangle and expanding triangle.

The corrective mode has two groups, simple and combined, bringing the total number of groups to 3. There are 2 orders of corrective combinations (double correction and triple correction), bringing the total number of orders to 5. Allowing only one triangle per combination and one zigzag per combination (as required), there are 8 families of corrective combinations in all: zig/flat, zig/tri., flat/flat, flat/tri., zig/flat/flat, zig/flat/tri., flat/flat/flat and flat/flat/tri., which brings the total number of families to 13. The total number of simple patterns and combination families is 21.

Figure 3-16 is a depiction of this developing tree of complexity. Listing permutations of those combinations, or further variations of lesser importance within waves, such as which wave, if any, is extended, which ways alternation is satisfied, whether an impulse does or does not contain a diagonal triangle, which types of triangles are in each of the combinations, etc., may serve to keep this progression going.

Figure 3-16

There may be an element of contrivance in this ordering process, as one can conceive of some possible variations in acceptable categorization. Still, that a principle about Fibonacci appears to reflect Fibonacci is itself worth some reflection.

Phi and Additive Growth

As we will show in subsequent lessons, the spiral-like form of market action is repeatedly shown to be governed by the Golden Ratio, and even Fibonacci numbers appear in market statistics more often than mere chance would allow. However, it is crucial to understand that while the numbers themselves do have theoretic weight in the grand concept of the Wave Principle, it is the ratio that is the fundamental key to growth patterns of this type. Although it is rarely pointed out in the
literature, the Fibonacci ratio results from this type of additive sequence no matter what two numbers start the sequence. The Fibonacci sequence is the basic additive sequence of its type since it begins with the number '1' (see Figure 3-17), which is the starting point of mathematical growth. However, we may also take any two randomly selected numbers, such as 17 and 352, and add them to produce a third, continuing in that manner to produce additional numbers. As this sequence progresses, the ratio between adjacent terms in the sequence always approaches the limit phi very quickly. This relationship becomes obvious by the time the eighth term is produced (see Figure 3-18). Thus, while the specific numbers making up the Fibonacci sequence reflect the ideal progression of waves in markets, the Fibonacci ratio is a fundamental law of geometric progression in which two preceding units are summed to create the next. That is why this ratio governs so many relationships in data series relating to natural phenomena of growth and decay, expansion and contraction, and advancement and retreat.

Figure 3-17

Figure 3-18

In its broadest sense, the Elliott Wave Principle proposes that the same law that shapes living creatures and galaxies is inherent in the spirit and activities of men en masse. The Elliott Wave Principle shows up clearly in the market because the stock market is the finest reflector of mass psychology in the world. It is a nearly perfect recording of man's social psychological states and trends, which produce the fluctuating valuation of his own productive enterprise, making manifest its very real patterns of progress and regress. What the Wave Principle says is that mankind's progress (of which the stock market is a popularly determined valuation) does not occur in a straight line, does not occur randomly, and does not occur cyclically. Rather, progress takes shape in a 'three steps forward, two steps back' fashion, a form that nature prefers. In our opinion, the parallels between and Wave Principle and other natural phenomena are too great to be dismissed as just so much nonsense. On the balance of probabilities, we have come to the conclusion that there is a principle, everywhere present, giving shape to social affairs, and that Einstein knew what he was talking about when he said, 'God does not play dice with the universe.' The stock market is no exception, as mass behavior is undeniably linked to a law that can be studied and defined. The briefest way to express this principle is a simple mathematical statement: the 1.618 ratio.

The Desiderata, by poet Max Ehrmann, reads, 'You are a child of the Universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should.' Order in life? Yes. Order in the stock market? Apparently.

In 1939, Financial World magazine published twelve articles by R.N. Elliott entitled 'The Wave Principle.' The original publisher's note, in the introduction to the articles, stated the following:

During the past seven or eight years, publishers of financial magazines and organizations in the investment advisory field have been virtually flooded with 'systems' for which their proponents have claimed great accuracy in forecasting stock market movements. Some of them appeared to work for a while. It was immediately obvious that others had no value whatever. All have been looked upon by The Financial World with great skepticism. But after investigation of Mr. R.N. Elliott's Wave Principle, The Financial World became convinced that a series of articles on this subject would be interesting and instructive to its readers. To the individual reader is left the determination of the value of the Wave Principle as a working tool in market forecasting, but it is believed that it should prove at least a useful check upon conclusions based on economic considerations.

The Editors of The Financial World

In the rest of this course, we reverse the editors' suggested procedure and argue that economic considerations at best may be thought of as an ancillary tool in checking market forecasts based entirely upon the Elliott Wave Principle.